At a time when an early Lok Sabha poll has a distinct possibility in the wake of the UPA-Left  differences over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the BJP has suddenly convinced itself of discovering a magic formula to overcome all its woes to take on its rivals. Seemingly, this confidence was evident at the just-concluded party national executive meeting in Bhopal. Till the other day, the BJP had appeared as fearful as any other party about the prospects of facing early elections. Even at the Bhopal meet, the internal squabbles over the leadership issue, dogging the party ever since it lost the 2004 parliamentary elections, were all too evident. Yet, the party leaders who do not see eye to eye with one another seemed to be confident that the Ram factor would again come to the party’s aid.

The BJP has been on the path of steady decline, both organisationally and politically, ever since it realised that its Ram temple plank would not bring it electoral dividends election-after-election. The leadership has been clueless about the way ahead after its “India Shining” plank flopped in 2004 since it knew that there was no way it could go back and resurrect the Ram temple issue that had paid electoral returns in the 1990s. But as the leaders gathered in Bhopal last week, they were again optimistic. Desperate as they were for an issue that holds religious symbolism, the BJP leaders have found another issue that goes with Ram – Ram Sethu. It is another matter whether Ram Sethu would be an emotive enough issue for political exploitation. 

The BJP’s enthusiasm about Ram Sethu is hardly surprising. Without a Ram theme, the party has been like a fish out of water. Mired in internal tussles, the party has demonstrated its abysmal failure to perform the role of an Opposition party so far during the UPA’s tenure. Indeed, the UPA Government has been a beneficiary of the BJP’s failure to function as a vigilant Opposition. Even on as a contentious issue as the nuclear deal, the party has been unable to articulate a coherent and convincing position, notwithstanding its opposition to it. This being the state of the BJP, the UPA, in particular the Congress and the DMK, may have done the desperate party a favour by needlessly kicking up a controversy over the Ram Sethu issue by questioning Lord Ram’s existence in history in its affidavit before the Supreme Court.