Cyrano wrote:BJP claims to be a party or at least adorns itself with the tag of a party with ideology and not dynastic. What is this ideology ? At a national level it is national interest and good governance that is development oriented and corruption free. At a state level, their narrative is double engine sarkar but its clear that they have failed in KA to implement this ideology and dare I say "values". Its the same case in various other states in which it has been in power for a while. Out of the 16 states it is in power, except for UP and perhaps Assam, we neither see dedication to the way it functions at the center nor is there much innovation.
BJP needs to resolve this dichotomy of functioning and performance between center and states to benefit from the enormous goodwill earned by Modi and his ministers. If the voter gets a "no different from corrupt factionalised congress" image at state level, it will definitely negatively impact his propensity to vote for the same party with the belief that it will somehow miraculously functions entirely differently at the center.
The separation of powers at state and center levels means that at the state level the govt needs to be a lot more "on the ground" on a daily basis and resolve innumerable small and big issues round the clock, where as at the center level its more about policy making, financial management, internal security, diplomacy and defense.
I think after nearly a decade in power, BJP has begun to understand and employ the organs of the state at the center. This learning however seems to not help much at the state level where the mandate and issues to tackle are different. From the partly leadership, innovative capability building within the party is missing. Why cant BJP set up a "good governance university" in which it trains its cadre on public interaction, accessibility, problem identification and collection, redressal, reporting back, transparency etc. Even if they are in opposition, these skills will help keep the non-BJP govt in power on its toes and give credibility as a party with a difference. When next election time comes, this will help maximise the benefit from anti-incumbency factor and win.
BJP is the most well funded party by far. Instead of spending all of that exclusively on posters banners and electioneering, I'd like to see them spend it on becoming the party with the most well informed and trained cadre in laws, policies, state machinery, governance tools and techniques, feedback collection and analysis etc etc. Run the party like a modern entreprise in certain critical dimensions, and not simply drag along as a vestige of the past seven decades of collective rot poured into a hindutva bottle only smeared on the outside with saffron paste? Is it unrealistic to expect such innovation from this party?
Cyrano Saar,
The term double engine Sarkar was coined around the UP elections of 2022 to campaign for the state to receive maximum benefits with both BJP govts working seamlessly. Even in UP the BJP has won because of Yogi and without him the result would have been similar to Karnataka. BJP there also faced the same issues - maybe not too much corruption but definitely had the issue of BJP MLA's and local leaders missing during the two years of Covid to solve any issues of local people. Most of the local leaders seem to prefer for Modi, Shah to come save their hides during election time and wet at the public trough during the 5 years so to speak.
There is very little work co-ordination and seeing a work through and there are myriad issues of caste, region barriers within the state. Covid has taken a certain sheen off the local BJP leaders ( we also saw the whole of the Gujarat govt replaced before elections). The issue was the same in UP with regards to the leaders work on the ground.
The other problem that is highlighted is the feedback collection analysis and to act on it the local state leadership has to be in agreement to it. Yedurappa has made the lingayats vote for the congress or atleast he didn't stop them from voting to the other side once he was disposed. there in lies another problem. One who can see an issue and suggest remedial measures may not be a good politician to win. While the local politician might be very good at garnering votes even if he is corrupt or non performing.
Modi has taken the gauntlet by stating that there will be one ticket per family and people need to retire after 75. We will see some upheaval in the short term and need to keep faith.
Afterall a few election victories in the span of 8-9 years so far made Rahul Gandhi to remember he is janeu brahmin and mamata to recite chandi paath, Arvind kejriwal to sing hanuman chalisa. Another set like this and Hindu issues will not have to suffer in the background.
Right now most of the issues are highlighted and eventually put on back burner by secular parties, another round like this and they will be forced to answer for their muslim appeasement and resolve hindu issues.