BJP reverts to ’84 formula

In a move reminiscent of post-1984, the BJP national executive on Thursday appointed a five-member committee headed by general secretary Sanjay Joshi ‘‘to draw lessons from the election results and to make suggestions for the forward movement of the party’’. After the ’84 elections in which the BJP won just two seats, the party set up a similar panel headed by the late Krishna Lal Sharma. Following that report, the BJP dropped ‘‘Gandhian socialism’’ and replaced it with ‘‘integral humanism’’ — the phrases conveyed respectively the ‘‘liberal’’ and the ‘‘Hindutva’’ lines in the party. Almost simultaneously, L.K. Advani replaced Vajpayee as party chief and came to be regarded as the architect of the BJP’s Hindutva-inspired growth.