There has been an alarming fall in the integrity quotient of the party as a whole. After the cash-for-questions scandal and an MP’s involvement in an emigration racket, the talk of ‘a party with a difference’ has been given a discreet go-by. The UP campaign even witnessed the unseemly spectacle of the top leadership practising cronyism in awarding contracts for publicity and transport. Indeed, there is the unmistakable impression of a mushrooming of private war chests in the BJP.

It is against the backdrop of this alarming degeneration that Advani finally broke his silence at the National Executive meet with a set of pointed questions whose answers are already well-known. Advani’s intervention was characteristically restrained but, given the prevailing gag order on all internal debate, it was wonderfully timed and has aroused expectations of some correctives being put in place.

There were many issues that Advani’s critique, quite understandably, left unaddressed. These centre on the leadership question. Regardless of whether he remains president or moves to more interesting challenges, it is clear that Rajnath lacks the attributes to inspire either the electorate or the BJP and NDA. Apart from the BJP being squeezed to the margins further, persisting with Rajnath will see more NDA partners fishing for alternatives.

This burden of a non-performing president may compel the party to place the responsibility of leading the charge in the 2009 polls on Advani. A decision cannot be put off indefinitely — not with the UPA reeling under anti-incumbency and the Left flexing its muscles with greater vigour. But no leadership can be effective without dismantling the dubious legacy of the Rajnath interregnum. The control of the BJP must vest with the BJP.

... contd.