'BJP shying away from fixing responsibility'

Excerpts from Yashwant Sinha's letter to BJP president Rajnath Singh

'As you are aware, I do not belong to the category of those great leaders who can contest and win elections from anywhere in the country. I have been rooted in one constituency, Hazaribagh, ever since I entered politics.

'It is not an easy constituency for me. So, as on previous occasions, this time also I had to work very hard to win my seat. I am grateful to the voters of Hazaribagh, to my party workers and to God Almighty for my win.

'It will be obvious even to a casual observer that this election has thrown up a number of issues, which we can ignore only at our own peril. These relate to our basic tenets, our policies and programmes, the issues that we raised during the elections, the language in which we expressed them, the strategy that we worked out for the polls, the manner in which that strategy was implemented, the campaign style of our leaders and, finally, the faces that we projected.

'The media has been quick to draw its own conclusions on our defeat. Many are superficial and unsupported by empirical evidence. But some facts stand out.

'We have never won a seat in Kerala. We have been wiped out in some marginal states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and most of the Northeast. We have drawn a blank in Orissa, Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand and J&K. We have done poorly in Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. In Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, our performance has been below our expectations.

'The only states where our performance has been satisfactory are Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Karnataka. What are the reasons for this wide variation?

'Which is the vote-bank we have lost? Which is the vote-bank we have gained? And finally, (we need to do) an analysis of the factors that helped the Congress increase its tally from 145 seats in the last election to 206 in this.

'I am sure, a detailed review would show us the path for the future.

'We are shying away from pin-pointing our weaknesses and fixing responsibility. We are hoping that time shall heal our wounds. Thus, while on the one hand, the party is avoiding a systematic appraisal of its performance, on the other, those who are responsible for the management of the campaign have already made their views public through interviews and articles in the media, drawn their conclusions, apportioned blame and given themselves a clean chit.

'Those of us who actually toiled in the field and took all the risk have not even been heard. Advaniji set a fine example of accountability by declining to take up the position of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. It was an eminently appropriate and dignified decision. He was persuaded to continue. So, have the others wanted to take responsibility and resign?

'In our anxiety to distribute amongst the few higher mortals in the party whatever goodies were available, we completely disregarded the parliamentary party constitution in the election of office-bearers of the parliamentary party on May 31.

'It is difficult to avoid the impression that in the BJP we put a premium on failure. Our reluctance to introspect comprehensively and openly is unacceptable to a large number of people within the party.

'If we are a party with a difference, let us set an example in abnegation. If the responsibility is collective, as I have often heard you say, then all of us should jointly share the responsibility for our defeat. Let the party implement its own Kamraj Plan, under which all office-bearers of the party and the parliamentary party should resign from their posts, which should then be filled up through the process of election laid down by our constitution. In order to facilitate this and to establish the principle of collective responsibility, I am making a beginning by submitting my resignation from all positions of responsibility in the party at the national and state level. I shall continue to serve the party as an ordinary worker and as its member in the Lok Sabha from Hazaribagh.'

(Excerpts from former BJP vice-president Yashwant Sinha's letter to party President Rajnath Singh)