BJP (M)

In the BJP,this is a time of change. The party that seemed to lose its way ever since it lost the 2004 election,which then witnessed the fading of the Atal-Advani era without finding a new centre of authority within,and as a result caved in to RSS micro-management,has now handed over the keys to a younger leader who projects an aura of decisiveness and deals in muscular certitudes. To be sure,Modi cannot be accused of unchangingness. Over the last few years,he has even worked hard towards a makeover — from the mascot of hard Hindutva and the chief minister accused of presiding over the 2002 violence,to a leader offering an articulate and coherent developmental agenda. Yet,the fact remains that he has done this without ever looking the 2002 allegations in the eye,much less addressing them. In that,Modi’s makeover may have been far less politically momentous than that of his former mentor,Advani,who journeyed from being the Rath Yatri to Ayodhya in the early 1990s to the senior statesman who made the Jinnah speech more than a decade later in Pakistan. The veteran’s arc,for all its encompassing ambit,led to his downfall in his party. Despite their incompleteness,Modi’s travels have brought him to the head of the same party.

It may be that,having conquered the party,Modi now reaches out to his vanquished opponents in the BJP and the Parivar,and to other parties in the NDA and points of view outside. It could be that Modi now sets out to not just inflame the faithful,but also persuade the sceptical. Or,he may only harden congealed positions. The answers will trickle in in time,the political excitement has only just begun.