It cannot be more ironical than this. The BJP-led NDA government is, on one hand, trying to implement a uniform tax regime throughout the country but on the other, the party is completely clueless when it comes to waiving off the farmers' loan and call to ban beef.
The newly elected BJP government of Uttar Pradesh called for a massive loan waiver soon after Yogi Adityanath took over as the chief minister in March. In Maharashtra where the BJP is also in power along with the Shiv Sena, the Devendra Fadnavis government has announced its decision to waive loans of the small and fringe farmers.
But the BJP government of Madhya Pradesh is in no mood to follow suit. The state's agriculture minister has said since the government is already providing interest-free loans, there is no question of waiving them off. Another BJP-ruled state Haryana is also not in favour of providing such relief to farmers.
The BJP is also facing backlash over its government's decision to ban sale of cattle for slaughter. The decision to put a ban on beef has also created more controversy at the federal level as the northeastern and southern states of the country, especially Kerala, that have beef as part of their regular diet. The BJP's Meghalaya unit has seen internal rift over the ban on beef, even though the party has tried to make two different rules for the Hindi heartland and the fringes.
BJP struggling to establish itself as a national party
So, the question is: Is the BJP struggling to establish itself as a nationalist party? Although it claims it to be the replacement for the Congress today, the incompatibility of its certain ideological traits with the idea of Indianness has not helped its cause.
To be a truly Bharatiya party, the BJP has to learn the nuances of pluralism which has not happened so far, even as it has expanded its base across the cultural terrains of India.
BJP: Incompatible with the idea of Indianness?
But if the idea of banning beef is more of a cultural incompatibility, the farmers' loan-waiving fiasco speaks more about the BJP's own administrative cluelessness. The saffron party, at this hour, needs to engage in deliberations to come out with uniform solutions for the farm loan issue but strangely, that is not happening. The party has won more states but yet they all look as islands.
Just like PM Narendra Modi at the national level, the BJP-ruled states see more personality cults than actual administrative work on the ground. More than MP, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Maharashtra or UP, we get to hear names of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Raman Singh, Manohar Parrikar, Devendra Fadnavis and Yogi Adityanath – their chief ministers – more. This personality cult of the BJP has given birth to a sense of popular leaders with larger than life images while uniform policies on the ground have been largely ignored.
The BJP needs to put in place a mechanism where policies matter more than individuals, if it really wants to emerge as a national party – something the Congress was in the Nehruvian days. The party must not only understand the pluralistic demands of the country but also learn the tricks of executing uniform administrative policies.
Modi has a lot of chief ministers from his party to feel proud about it is high time that he brings all or most of them, who are administratively naive, to deliver. He has helped most of these leaders win elections and assume the office. Now, it is his turn to show them the way forward as well.
