India's 'SMS' party

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is vocal about being a party with a difference, is currently facing considerable internal rifts within its senior ranks, whether in Karnataka, Maharashtra or Rajasthan. So much so that one former Maharashtra legislator, an RSS-turned BJP leader, contemptuously described the party as an “SMS party” for senior leaders’ inability to provide coherent leadership or strategy. The analogy was simple: SMSes are deleted or overlooked by the recipient, she said, and that is what will happen to the party if senior leaders, including former Union and state ministers, did not change their style of functioning.