•Monojit Majumdar: Some preliminary assessments must have been made. What went wrong?

I don’t attribute the defeat to a single reason. While there is no uniformity in the results throughout the country, one trend that was uniform was that the minorities shifted to Congress/UPA. Also, while we tried to set out an agenda before the people, there was a sustained campaign by a section of the media to shift the focus to other issues and that confused the public.

For example, the BJP’s manifesto is one of the best ever. At public meetings, we highlighted five important issues: price rise, the agrarian crisis, terrorism, unemployment and vote bank politics. Instead, the media focus was on Sri Ram Sena with which we have no association whatsoever. Then came Kandhahar. This was debated even during the 2004 elections. After Kandhahar, it was Varun Gandhi and his speech that went on for 15 days. The BJP spokesperson clarified that Varun Gandhi’s remarks were not acceptable to the BJP, that we do not approve of what was said and that there should be an enquiry into the matter. But still, it went on. Our campaign did not get adequate attention. The fact is, we could not effectively communicate our manifesto, our earlier achievements and our strong, critical differences with the Congress.

•Monojit Majumdar: Don’t you think the best way to stop this campaign would have been to immediately condemn Varun Gandhi?

My counter question is this: is the country’s future and a political party’s agenda represented by one person who has no particular position in the party when the party itself is articulating larger issues? On the second day, my party spokesman categorically said we don’t approve of the purported speech of Varun Gandhi. What else is required?

... contd.