Exit Mr Advani

Defeat confuses political parties. Not just in India but in all democracies. So it is not surprising that the BJP, which till May last year was looking forward to at least another term in office, should be looking so bewildered.

Defeat also forces parties to scurry back to the safety and comfort of their core agendas. The Congress did so with very satisfactory results. Now it is the BJP's turn. So, in the just-concluded meeting in Chennai, it has resurrected all the old ghosts""the appeasement of Muslims by the Congress, vote bank politics as seen in the decision in Andhra Pradesh to reserve seats for Muslims, the 50 per cent quota for Muslims in Aligarh Muslim University, which violates the Constitution, the politics of fatwas aimed at intimidating women, the dangers to national security posed by immigration from Bangladesh, and so on.

On the economic side, with which the meeting was not particularly concerned and which was perhaps why it asked Vijay Kumar Malhotra to draft the resolution, it was business as usual: no FDI in retail (even though it was during BJP rule that the idea was being pursued with vigour) and an embarrassed silence about the imposition of VAT in the five BJP-ruled states.

The party also did its duty by unleashing the usual sort of attack on the government. It accused the UPA of "incoherence, recklessness and drift, and negativism"! Then there was the anticipated dig about the wielders of the veto, such as the "over-riding veto" of the UPA chairperson and her coterie, "the "strategic veto" of the Left, and that of the "blackmail of the tainted ministers".

L K Advani, who at one time had a hand in weakening Prime Minister Vajpayee, described Manmohan Singh as the weakest that the country had had.

It would be wrong, however, to dismiss the meeting as though nothing of note happened. Something did, and it pertains to what the party was at pains to downplay, namely, the coming exit of Mr Advani. He will remain till December as president, it seems, if only to lead the party to possible defeat in the Bihar election.

After that, he will have to rely on influence rather than power. The baton will pass to someone else. When Mr Advani goes, it will be the equivalent of the opening pair in cricket being dismissed, for Mr Vajpayee is already back in the pavilion, analysing the games from which he has retired.

Who is next in the batting order is still not clear. An important question is whether the new BJP president will be a nominee of the RSS or not. Given the state of play, it is futile to believe that the RSS will not have its way.

The resolution adopted at Chennai could have come straight from the RSS litany. At the very least, it has the merit of not saying anything to annoy the RSS.

Given the way in which Messrs Vajpayee and Advani had angered it, there seems little doubt that they were mere observers while the resolutions were being framed by others. It is impossible not to feel a little sad at the humbling of two towering politicians, even if their politics was often reprehensible.