In January 2005, senior members of the BJP, the RSS and the broader Sangh family met for a brain-storming session. The atmosphere was informal, the conversation free and frank. Many ideas were thrown about and debated, and soon the subject moved to electoral reforms. Somebody mentioned state-funding of elections as a cause the BJP had once espoused.

At this point, Pramod Mahajan made a pertinent interjection. The nub of what he said was this: "When we were far away from Government, in the mid-1980s, we used to articulate a lot of things such as state-funding of elections. They sound nice in speeches and editorial page articles but, when we come to power, we realise they are not practicable and have problems of their own. Today, the BJP is a contender for office. I suggest we limit our proposals to those than can be implemented."

It was cautionary counsel, and appreciated by the others.

Over the past two days, as the BJP's National Executive and National Council have met and conferred in New Delhi, the wisdom of Pramod Mahajan's words has hit home. In various speeches and resolutions, the BJP has called for a series of blockbuster measures. It has promised to write off loans of up to Rs 50,000 for every farmer. If the money is owed to a private lender, Government banks will pay on the farmer's behalf and presumably absorb the losses.

The urban middle class has not been left out either. There have been demands to "regulate" stock market and real estate speculation, even if nobody is sure how this is to be done and whether it is achievable or even desirable. Second, a promise has been made to bring down housing loan interest rates, in the words of one functionary, to levels that prevailed when the NDA was in power.

There are paradoxes and contradictions written into the script, the sort that would have had Pramod Mahajan holding his head in despair.

It is nobody's argument that Indian agriculture does not face a financial and technological crisis, but are 1980s style "loan melas" the answer? If the debt waivers are going to be, eventually, subsidised by the tax-payer or the individual investor who has put his savings in public-sector bank equity, is the BJP really going to be able to please all the people all the time?

Frankly, examples such as the ones above are only symptoms. The affliction runs far deeper. Over the past four years, the BJP has achieved something even its worst critics wouldn't have dreamt of -- it has run out of ideas. In turn, this has bred a culture of intellectual laziness and of sheer inertia.

Take for instance the party's broad strategy for coming to power in 2009, when the next Lok Sabha election is scheduled. There is an almost smug belief that anti-incumbency against the Congress-led UPA Government will automatically bring the BJP-led NDA back to the Treasury benches. Next, there is talismanic faith in the mantra that today a national election is only an agglomeration of State elections.

To be fair, these assumptions are not entirely incorrect. A restive mood against an under-performing and besieged UPA leadership is apparent. That aside, State alliances are very important for the national parties. It is no wonder then that the BJP is acutely concerned whether a tie-up with Mr Om Prakash Chautala can be achieved, how significantly Mr Bhajan Lal and Ms Mayawati can damage the Congress, and how many seats all this can yield for the NDA in Haryana.

Yet, is this all there is to politics? While an accretion in the NDA ranks is welcome, while the Congress-led Government's list of failures is long and well-known, what about the BJP's own platform? What inspirational idea is it selling the country or even its own constituency? A big picture approach to governance and the need to convey this as part of its election build-up are key complementary ingredients to mobilising regional partners. Without one the other is meaningless.

On the face of it, the party is making the right noises. It is protesting against "appeasement", decrying "dynastic politics", calling for the death of terrorist Mohammed Afzal and vowing to protect Ram Setu. These are all worthy commitments, but can it actually build an entire national electoral campaign around them? More important, are these reflective of the core concerns of the BJP's core supporters?

The truth is the party is stuck in the rhetoric of the late-1980s/early-1990s. It is out of tune with its traditional urban -- big city to small town, metro to mofussil, Kamrup to Kutch -- voter. As India has changed over the past decade-and-a-half, the BJP has not bothered to renew its social contract with its constituency.

When the party has sought to shake itself up, it has only caused more confusion. The so-called de-linking of ideology and governance is a case in point. The challenge is not to junk ideology -- that would reduce the BJP to a power-hungry caricature of a once wholesome political tradition -- but to renew it, to make it relevant to governance. It is to move from being a party of permanent protesters to a party of the establishment; in RSS-speak, it is to move from Hindutva to Ram Rajya.

The difference is crucial. In the 1980s, the BJP used Hindutva as its calling card to rouse Hindu consciousness, to shape a sense of national identity. It was important to punch holes into the Congress's hypocritical policies, its minority-mongering and so on. To a large degree that purpose has been achieved. It is appropriate to make the quantum leap from agitprop to actualisation, to move to the highest stage of the Hindutva project -- Ram Rajya or, simply, responsible governance.

That is why the BJP has to do more than merely hope for anti-incumbency to propel it to office, more than just focus on the jihadi infrastructure that has been allowed to develop across India's heartland. It needs a positive appeal too; it needs to sell hope.

It is not that only 'hard' issues are necessary here. In an age of rising medical costs, a comprehensive, federally-funded, cradle-to-grave national health insurance programme -- that makes impressive private hospitals accessible to ordinary Indians -- could touch a chord. For that though, the BJP has to be in tune with its people.

Courtesy: www.dailypioneer.com, January 30, 2008