Neither learn nor forget

Much like the Bourbons, the BJP neither learns anything nor forgets anything. While in office, the party injected its divisive ideology in education and culture.
It condoned the murderous conduct of Narendra Modi in the aftermath of Godhra. And it looked the other way when its saffronite affiliates intimidated, harassed and persecuted minorities.
These blemishes tarnished the party''s image at home and abroad and accounted, in large measure, for its defeat in the general elections.
The party''s zeal to push its agenda also detracted attention from the pragmatic policies it implemented in certain areas. The NDA government invigorated the economy, placed the country''s foreign policy on a sound footing and modernised the defence forces.
Despite Kargil, the failure of the Agra summit and the terrorist attacks on Parliament and elsewhere, Atal Behari Vajpayee extended a hand of friendship to Pakistan.
World capitals and public opinion in India and Pakistan greeted the courageous move with enthusiasm. But the party frittered away the goodwill it had earned with its smug and self-congratulatory election campaign.
All the same, those who believe that the country needs two strong parties or alliances to ensure stability at the Centre had hoped that the BJP would draw the right lessons from its electoral defeat.
That was not to be. The party gave the impression that it has lost its marbles. The self-serving histrionics of a Sushma Swaraj and a Uma Bharati in the wake of Sonia Gandhi''s rise to the pinnacle of politics were indicative of its state of mind.
Add to this the tasteless remarks of Yashwant Sinha about the Prime Minister. The party leadership should have foreseen the consequences.
As it is, the diatribes against Sonia Gandhi had misfired when she took the unprecedented step to renounce the office of Prime Minister.
Sinha compounded the folly when he directed his barbs at a man widely respected for his character and integrity. This only served to remove the sting from the BJP''s fulminations against the inclusion of ''tainted'' ministers in the Manmohan Singh cabinet.
The proceedings of the party''s National Council meeting in the Capital this past week confirm the BJP''s descent into regression. Under the leadership of L K Advani, it has chosen to pursue its ideological offensive once again, especially on the Ram temple issue.
This may bring comfort to its cadres and its core constituency. But the return to the hard line - where religious faith matters more than the courts or the Constitution - can and do raise legitimate fears among its NDA allies and in public opinion at large that the party is hell-bent on flaunting its majoritarian colours.
Against this background the BJP''s criticism of the way the Congress has addressed issues of national security, its taunt about the ''devaluation'' of the post of Prime Minister and its charge that the Communists were engaged in ''back seat driving'' sound a trifle hollow.
And so we have this pitiable sight of the BJP first banking on astrological forecasts to fashion its strategy to return to power, and once the predictions failed to materialise, to count on the ''contradictions'' of the present arrangements at the Centre to create a void which it naturally hopes to fill.
To cap it all, we have the party swearing fealty to the tired, old men of the RSS in Nagpur who do not feel the pulse of the nation''s youth. It yearns for education, jobs and clean and effective governance. In its eyes, ''cultural nationalism'' is a chimera.
The proponents of the latter are prisoners of the past, not the torch-bearers of the future. Vajpayee and Advani could have redeemed the situation. But they allowed short-sighted expediency to override their larger and better-honed ambitions.