The BJP knows well how preposterous statements made by its leaders embarrass the party and the government that pitches for ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’, and this is the reason why the party’s top leadership cautions its motormouth leaders to be careful about what they say. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, from time to time, keeps on advising these leaders to abstain from making outrageous statements, but it seems that they barely care about it. The Prime Minister, on multiple occasions, has even given stern warnings to his ministers and BJP leaders that the public has elected them to work and as such they should avoid making unnecessary statements in every matter.
Modi had asked party leaders to remain active in their respective fields, actively participate in social work along with politics, and work to strengthen the organisation. But despite the advice of the Prime Minister, some people have become accustomed to giving controversial statements which provide the media with a lot of spicy stuff. Last month, while addressing the BJP National Executive meeting, Modi made a scathing remark on the leaders who give controversial statements on every issue, saying that there is a leader who keeps giving statements on films and his remarks keep running on TV. Such leaders even ignore the advice of the party president, he asserted.
Be it Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, the BJP finds itself in an uncomfortable position due to unnecessary and controversial statements of its own leaders, MLAs, MPs and ministers. How big this problem has become for the BJP, which is engaged in the mission of expanding the party’s mass base, can be gauged from the fact that on February 17, BJP president J P Nadda, in a virtual meeting, gave a stern warning to the party MPs and instructed them not to make statements on religious and controversial issues.
Giving clear instructions, he said that if necessary, only the authorised spokesperson of the party would give a statement on such issues. Nadda had called this online meeting of all the MPs of the party to discuss strategy to take the budget announcements and the President’s address to the people. On the occasion, the party president was seen asking the MPs to refrain from making statements on unnecessary, controversial and especially religious issues while explaining the basic mantra and vision of the Prime Minister.
According to Nadda, religious matters, subjects like religion and faith to whom they belong, will be looked into but political people should not get involved in this and should not make statements. He also said that party leaders should avoid making unnecessary statements. According to him, the theme of the party is ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas’ and everyone should work on this theme. In the coming days, there are going to be major changes in both the government and the party organisation and in such a situation motormouth leaders may have to face loss because of their behaviour and preposterous statements.
