BJP plans RSS-type training for cadre

The BJP is contemplating to start a three-year training programme for its cadre on the lines of RSS. The programme is intended to hone the skills of its cadre before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

A similar three-year training programme has been organised in Maharashtra on a pilot basis and the party now plans to put the same into practice at an all-India level.

According to leaders close to party president Nitin Gadkari, discussion on this idea is at an initial level and “a policy decision on the issue will be taken after due deliberation. Nothing is final yet.”

“In Maharashtra, 17 selected BJP leaders from the State were trained from 2007 to 2009 on an experimental basis at Rambhau Mhalgi Probodhini. If everybody agrees, this programme can be institutionalised,” said Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, the director general of Rambhau Mhalgi Probodhini, the training centre for RSS and BJP leaders, near Mumbai. He recently took up the job of political advisor to newly appointed BJP president Nitin Gadkari.

“The training will aim at creating ideological clarity and understanding, providing information on policy matters and social issues, introduction to policies of other political parties and practical aspects like public speaking, publicity and honing of other skills,” Sahasrabuddhe said.

Two training workshops have been held in the last six years in which Ministers from all BJP-ruled States took part. The need for training was felt after RSS and party top brass understood that there was a lack of ideological commitment among the new crop of leaders.

The BJP leaders will be trained by professional and management experts drawn from different spheres. Some RSS leaders are also likely to participate as trainers.

According to reports, party veteran and Chairman of the BJP Parliamentary Party LK Advani has lent his support to the training for a “deeper, superior political understanding”.

Gadkari’s predecessor Rajnath Singh recently underlined the need for working on improving this ideological commitment. This includes strengthening of the Hindutva line of thinking.

A new thrust area for the right-wing party — under the changed dispensation — is an emphasis on winning over more voters from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, the youth and women which are getting increasingly attracted to arch-foe Congress.

Having faced its second consecutive defeat in the Lok Sabha polls in May last year, BJP is looking at the road-ahead and preparing the ground for the battle of 2014.

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