The BJP has sought to maintain a cordial distance from this scandal by deeming it as a private matter. However, in spite of the party's protestations, this isn't entirely the case. After the equipoise that Rahul Mahajan demonstrated during his family's tragedy last month, there had been credible talk of nominating him to the Rajya Sabha to his late father's seat. As a back-up plan, the leadership of the party's youth wing awaited him. In these circumstances, given that Rahul Mahajan was on the threshold of entering public life, there is a clear element of public interest involved in the matter.
However, in this unfolding and dramatic Mahajan familial narrative, with its soap operatic twists and turns, the bigger picture extends much beyond the champagne and drug induced indiscretions of Rahul Mahajan and his cohorts. The real issue is embedded in the culture of tolerance - and perhaps even a disturbing admiration - within the BJP of the ways and means adopted by the Safdarjung Set. As long as their fund raising initiatives succeeded, the party was prepared to be impervious to the dubiousness of the moral acts or any insinuation of sleaze. In return, this atmosphere of unhealthy moral relativism in the party furnished the perfect encouragement for the "in-between-world" of middlemen and wheeler-dealers to bloom.
It is true that fundraisers are an important resource for any political party. It would be either hypocritical or naive to contend otherwise. The BJP is not alone in seeking out individuals with a capacity to attract donors. Yet the party should cogitate whether its unquestioning quid pro quo marriage of convenience with these unsavoury elements is in its best interests. Its uncritical attitude sends a resounding message to the electorate: The party with a difference is really not vastly different from the others.
Nevertheless, as Shakespeare said, "Sweet are the uses of adversity". The Rahul Mahajan saga is a blessing in disguise for the BJP. It would have been far worse for the party if this had erupted when Rahul Mahajan was in public office. Had the BJP propelled Rahul swiftly into a prominent role within the party without prior experience to negate the appeal of his namesake, it would also have forsaken moral ground by admitting the dynastic principle of succession within its own ranks.
The scandal has unwittingly forced vital issues into the open, which the party hitherto was aware of, but chose to ignore. As the Congress casts its fishing net into the sea of casteism and quota politics, the BJP ought to debate whether it can genuinely offer an alternative and composite vision.
The doubting voters are entitled to ask, what does the BJP stand for and what differentiates it from its political rivals? At the moment, a comprehensive explanation may not be easily forthcoming. The party gives the impression that it is hoping to return to office at the next general election more on the anti-incumbency feeling than perhaps on the strength of its policy plank. If this is so, it is a tawdry lowering of its ambition.
The BJP should reconfigure itself as a credible voice of private enterprise and hard liberalism that sufficiently recognises India's absorptive past together with its dynamic modern aspirations. In light of recent developments, Vajpayee suggests that the party must introspect. As a first step, the BJP could acknowledge the need for internal renewal. If it obdurately refuses to conduct a necessary self-assessment, then far from finding a solution to its present travails, the party runs the risk of sinking further into an amoral abyss.
(Rishabh Bhandari is a lawyer at a global law firm in London. These are his personal views.)
first published:June 13, 2006, 11:10 ISTlast updated:June 13, 2006, 11:10 IST
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Rahul Mahajan's fateful tryst with cocaine has undeniably embarrassed the BJP. At one level, some might view it as the waywardness of an individual's lifestyle choice. At a deeper level though, the excesses involving late Pramod Mahajan's son and aides - shall we say the "Safdarjung Road Set" - amplify the extent of the party's moral vacuity and declining standards.
The BJP has sought to maintain a cordial distance from this scandal by deeming it as a private matter. However, in spite of the party's protestations, this isn't entirely the case. After the equipoise that Rahul Mahajan demonstrated during his family's tragedy last month, there had been credible talk of nominating him to the Rajya Sabha to his late father's seat. As a back-up plan, the leadership of the party's youth wing awaited him. In these circumstances, given that Rahul Mahajan was on the threshold of entering public life, there is a clear element of public interest involved in the matter.
However, in this unfolding and dramatic Mahajan familial narrative, with its soap operatic twists and turns, the bigger picture extends much beyond the champagne and drug induced indiscretions of Rahul Mahajan and his cohorts. The real issue is embedded in the culture of tolerance - and perhaps even a disturbing admiration - within the BJP of the ways and means adopted by the Safdarjung Set. As long as their fund raising initiatives succeeded, the party was prepared to be impervious to the dubiousness of the moral acts or any insinuation of sleaze. In return, this atmosphere of unhealthy moral relativism in the party furnished the perfect encouragement for the "in-between-world" of middlemen and wheeler-dealers to bloom.
It is true that fundraisers are an important resource for any political party. It would be either hypocritical or naive to contend otherwise. The BJP is not alone in seeking out individuals with a capacity to attract donors. Yet the party should cogitate whether its unquestioning quid pro quo marriage of convenience with these unsavoury elements is in its best interests. Its uncritical attitude sends a resounding message to the electorate: The party with a difference is really not vastly different from the others.
Nevertheless, as Shakespeare said, "Sweet are the uses of adversity". The Rahul Mahajan saga is a blessing in disguise for the BJP. It would have been far worse for the party if this had erupted when Rahul Mahajan was in public office. Had the BJP propelled Rahul swiftly into a prominent role within the party without prior experience to negate the appeal of his namesake, it would also have forsaken moral ground by admitting the dynastic principle of succession within its own ranks.
The scandal has unwittingly forced vital issues into the open, which the party hitherto was aware of, but chose to ignore. As the Congress casts its fishing net into the sea of casteism and quota politics, the BJP ought to debate whether it can genuinely offer an alternative and composite vision.
The doubting voters are entitled to ask, what does the BJP stand for and what differentiates it from its political rivals? At the moment, a comprehensive explanation may not be easily forthcoming. The party gives the impression that it is hoping to return to office at the next general election more on the anti-incumbency feeling than perhaps on the strength of its policy plank. If this is so, it is a tawdry lowering of its ambition.
The BJP should reconfigure itself as a credible voice of private enterprise and hard liberalism that sufficiently recognises India's absorptive past together with its dynamic modern aspirations. In light of recent developments, Vajpayee suggests that the party must introspect. As a first step, the BJP could acknowledge the need for internal renewal. If it obdurately refuses to conduct a necessary self-assessment, then far from finding a solution to its present travails, the party runs the risk of sinking further into an amoral abyss.
(Rishabh Bhandari is a lawyer at a global law firm in London. These are his personal views.)
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