NEW DELHI - CHASTENED by its electoral defeat, India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to woo the Muslim community by pursuing a tolerant version of Hindu nationalism.

The decision was taken at an acrimonious two-day meeting of the party's national executive council here last weekend.

'Theocracy or any form of bigotry is alien to our ethos. Hinduism is not (to) be understood or construed (as) narrowly confined only to religious practices or expressed in extreme forms,' said the political resolution passed at the meeting. Hindutva is a 'concept of coexistence of all', it added.

Top leader L.K. Advani, who was the BJP's prime ministerial candidate in last month's general election, spoke against 'narrow, bigoted anti-Muslim' interpretations of Hindutva, the party's ideological mooring based on Hindu nationalism.

Political analysts said the BJP, which lost its bid for power for the second consecutive time, had realised that to remain relevant in national politics, it had to espouse secular values.

The meeting, the first since the electoral defeat, was marked by acrimony and finger-pointing and took place against a backdrop of a series of letters written and leaked to the media by senior leaders critical of the party leadership.

Leaders such as former ministers Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, angry over being overlooked for parliamentary posts, questioned how those who were responsible for the electoral debacle were rewarded with those posts.

The attack was widely considered to be directed at Mr Advani - who had offered to quit as the leader of opposition in Parliament following the election defeat but was 'persuaded' to stay on - and his close associates.

'The heat being generated by the internal wars has reduced the BJP to a caricature of its disciplined 'party with a difference' image and raised embarrassing questions about its future,' the India Today magazine commented.

The Hindustan Times newspaper dubbed the BJP a party of 'differences'. But the national executive papered over these differences and called for introspection. 'Introspection is different from finger-pointing. Let us treat the outcome of the elections as behoves a mature and highly resilient political party,' Mr Advani said in his concluding address.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times

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