The much-hyped “Chintan Baithak” (meeting for introspection) of the Indian right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (the main opposition party) to fix responsibility for its debacle in the last Lok Sabha elections ended with a book review! Jaswant Singh was axed for his comments in his latest book on Jinnah. It was no more than a baithak (meeting). Chintan (introspection) was sadly missing.

At the end of the baithak, the top BJP leader and leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, Lal Krishna Advani, is firmly entrenched in his position. So is the senior leader and leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley!

The only decision of any consequence relates to the top BJP leader in Rajasthan, Vasudhara Raje.

Vasundhara Raje came under severe attack earlier when she goofed up the Gujjar tangle as the Chief Minister of Rajasthan causing the problem to spill over to neighbouring states thereby converting a local problem into a national problem. The whole issue was handled in a ham-handed fashion.

Not only did Vasundhara Raje antagonize Gujjars by letting loose Meenas on them instead of dealing with the problem through security forces, she also ended up antagonizing the Meenas in the end. This and other issues such as issue of licenses for liquor vends that led to the debacle of the BJP at the Assembly as well as Lok Sabha elections have in a way proved that the BJP’s experiment of translocation of a leader from one state to another has more or less failed. The Congress party has never done this.

However, Vasundhara Raje’s continuing popularity with the party MLAs in Rajasthan resulting in a show of strength which was aimed at challenging the central leadership of the BJP has the central leadership worried. It would be interesting for the central leadership to unearth the secret of her strength.

Following repeated attempts, the central leadership has managed to persuade her to step down as its leader in Rajasthan. She may have to be rehabilitated with a party post in the headquarters of the BJP as was being offered to her. If that happens, she can be expected to give the party president Rajnath Singh some sleepless nights. After all, it was Rajnath Singh and late Sahib Singh Verma who were most strident in demanding her head after the Gujjar mess up.

By now, it is absolutely clear that the real reason behind the exit of Jaswant Singh from the party is not his book on Jinnah but something else. Many in the BJP who demanded his expulsion from the party for his comments on Jinnah and Sardar Patel may not have read his book from cover to cover.

Whether the BJP likes it or not, the expulsion of Jaswant Singh has set off a chain reaction. Sudheendra Kulkarni, long term associate of Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani who spearheaded the BJP election campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, has parted company citing differences in ideology as the reason for his exit. Arun Shourie too has been critical of the goings on in the BJP although he has not been dealt with so firmly. In the middle of all this, former head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, K.S. Sudharshan, has jumped on to the bandwagon that is praising Jinnah. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is the ideological parent of the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party.

As a result of these unpleasant events, lots of skeletons are tumbling out of the BJP’s closets. For one thing, Jaswant Singh, Brajesh Mishra and Yashwant Sinha have now confirmed what Farooq Abdulla had claimed before the Lok Sabha elections—that Advani was fully aware of the swapping of terrorists for the crew and passengers of Indian Airlines flight number IC-814.

In any case, Advani’s statement that he did not know of this swap is intriguing. He was the Home Minister at that point of time and he should have been the first to know of this. If he was kept in the dark, he must have learnt this from the newspapers next morning as the rest of India did. Then, what kept him from resigning from his Home Minister’s post as a protest against this transgression? Why did he have to save this piece of information for his autobiography?

By revealing that the RSS is in favour of younger BJP leaders in the range of 50-60 years of age taking over reigns of the party, the new RSS chief, Mohan Bagwat, has made things difficult for the oldies. For one thing, it has dampened the spirit of the likes of Murali Manohar Joshi who was hoping that he would emerge stronger after the chintan baithak.

In short, Bhagwat’s call might force senior leaders to pack up and languish in the backrooms of the party. But, who will take over the reigns?

Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj are not a mass leaders. Narendra Modi has a mass base but that is in Gujarat. There is no way he can replicate the Gujarat model on India. He has already got a taste of that during the last Lok Sabha elections. Uma Bharti is a spent force. Varun Gandhi? Every sensible leader in BJP is having second thoughts about him.

Unlike the Congress party which has Rahul Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot to name a few promising young leaders, the BJP does not seemed to have a crop of young leaders. At least, they have not been showcased like the young Congress leaders. So, who are the dark horses Mohan Baghwant had on his mind when he hinted that BJP has a good crop of leaders in that range?

Where the BJP goes from here depends largely on who takes over reigns of the BJP at this stage. It depends on how seriously the process of rebuilding the party is taken. That might call of some tough decisions because if you look under the carpet now, all you see is hypocrisy and petty politics.