The form in which the BJP is coming to terms with its defeat explains why it deserved to lose. Many of the explanations have rightly focused on a number of factors. BJP has not been able to ideologically reinvent itself, its campaign was tactically clueless, it organisation moribund, its message confused. Some have gone deeper and pointed out the fact that the mainstay of the party, the RSS is also in deep crisis. The issue is not how much the RSS controls the BJP. The issue is that the social importance of the RSS has declined immeasurably. It is simply not attracting young people. Others have pointed to the fact that the party did not exercise leadership at crucial moments. It did not speak enough to the future. Its handling of Malegaon, Mumbai and Varun Gandhi was atrocious. All of these things are in some measure true.

But fundamentally parties, in addition to ideology and organisation, are made by a sense of character. The squabbles that are emerging in the party are almost a psychological personification of the weaknesses of BJP's ideology. It is a party that has specialised in nursing grudges and capitalising on them. Now all the personal grudges are coming out. It is a party never been known for generosity and forgiveness, a sense of let bygones be bygones. Now you will not get those gestures of reconciliation that can help tide over differences. It is a party that thrives on victimhood: whatever happens is always someone else's fault. No wonder "atma chintan" is looking a bit like an oxymoron. Other parties have abandoned nationalism for opportunism. BJP did something worse: it made nationalism opportunism. No wonder its leaders cannot face up to the fact that most of them have been playing a game of such petty interests. They could not tell the distinction between opportunism and something else even if stared them in the face. For a party that claimed the mantle of nationalism there is an astonishing degree of parochialism. Let us face it. The current face down in the BJP has nothing to do with ideology or analysis. It has everything to do with the fact that most of its leaders are cramped up personalities, who cannot look beyond their noses.

... contd.