HOW BJP PUTS THE PARTY ABOVE THE INDIVIDUAL

The BJP and RSS have a history of putting the organisation above self. That is why senior functionaries can step aside for a newer generation without a murmur

- VINAY SAHASRABUDDHE

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi is known for his mastery over the art of implementation. He walks whatever he talks. He has always been advocating for the supremacy of the party organisation. In 2019, immediately after the election results were out, at the first meeting of BJP parliamentary party, the prime minister very candidly told members of parliament that cabinet berths would be decided on the basis of some norms and there should not be any indulgence in needless kite-flying. Mincing no words, he gave a clear message that the party organisation was always supreme. It is relevant to recall this after the installation of three new BJP state governments led by entirely new captains. Many are discussing as to how the BJP could do this so effortlessly. The answer lies in the philosophy of the party organsiation’s supremacy as practised by the BJP.

Politics is known for continuous oneupmanship, cut-throat competition, confrontations and conspiracies. Amid scores of examples, where even two siblings of the party chief’s family fail to stay together, here is a party where seamless generational change is made possible and even first-timers make it to the top position. The secret of BJP’s ability to make this happen lies in its own science of organisation rooted in the ethos of idealism and ideology, both primarily originated in the RSS.

Not too long ago, a pracharak who was in the BJP was appointed to a senior position back in the RSS. This happened in such a seamless manner that people outside the BJP were left wondering. When a similar decision was taken over two decades earlier, a pracharak had quipped, “As