If Advani succeeds in tempering the BJP’s bellicosity on the nuclear agreement and disentangles the party from the Left-inspired anti-Americanism he will deny Sonia Gandhi the opportunity to don the mantle of national interest. At the same time he will provide himself the necessary manoeuvrability to shift the discourse into a space of the BJP’s own choosing.

For the BJP, the immediate priority is to position itself appropriately as the party committed to decisive governance, political coherence and a no-nonsense attitude to national and internal security. In other words, the BJP and, for that matter the NDA, must occupy the centre-right space which was unfortunately abdicated as a result of internal convulsions and a preoccupation with abstruse concerns. To appear as a credible alternative, the BJP has to consciously live down its own shambolic record of the past three years.

One of the main elements in a political recovery is decisive and inspiring leadership. At the root of the troubles in the BJP in recent years has been a leadership void, which allowed private agendas to distort the political process. With Atal Bihari Vajpayee assuming a purely ceremonial role, the onus is now on Advani to assume complete charge. The remaining obstacles in the path of his resuming his pre-2005 role have been cleared. The RSS, for example, has signalled the organisation’s phased withdrawal from the day-to-day functioning of the BJP and its confidence in Advani’s leadership. This decision, which may take a little time to fully implement and may even encounter pockets of resistance, will remove the biggest distortion that has crept into the BJP in recent times: the transfer of power from the politician to the non-political pracharaks.

... contd.