BJP chief asks party leaders to become pragmatic

Disturbed over the growing distance, at least in parliamentary strategy, between the party and its principal ally, the Janata Dal(U), LK Advani asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to be pragmatic, saying in politics, sometimes "idealism should be placed above ideology".

This was the first indication that the positive voting by the JD(U) on the expulsion of 10 Lok Sabha and one Rajya Sabha member and its separate stance on reservation for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in private educational institutions had begun to worry the party.

Addressing the BJP national council, a fair part of Advani's speech was dedicated to a pragmatic approach towards politics and the importance of coalition dharma.

"During the SVD (Samyukt Vidhayak Dal) governments in some states in 1967, the Jan Sangh had found itself on the same side as the Left, and some party leaders felt that an alliance in which the Left and the Jan Sangh were together was like the co-existence of watermelon and knife. But it was Deen Dayal Upadhyaya who had then said if untouchability was a sin, political untouchability, too, should not be accepted," said Advani.

"You can remain with the people with differing ideologies, but still remain firm on your own," he added.

"The BJP is not just the leader but also the moral force that binds allied regional parties to a national alliance. Between 1951 and 1971, the Jan Sangh usually went on its own. In 1972, Jaiprakash Narain made us rethink because the Congress was a greater evil. He put a thought in our minds that ideology was important but idealism ought to be prioritised in certain situations," said Advani.

"If we look back we shall see that the BJP has emerged the biggest beneficiary of that experiment," he said.

This was Advani's last address to the BJP national council as party president, and his main message seemed to be in the form of a warning not to mess with the party's core non-Congress image and to keep its friends close as the BJP did during the NDA rule by putting certain issues like Ram temple, uniform civil code and abolition of Article 370 on the back-burner. BJP president-designate Rajnath Singh has a lot to think about now.