BJP’s got a new ‘corporate’ headquarters but its workers feel it’s an ivory tower

BJP Headquarters in New Delhi | BJP Website

The old BJP office was a typical Lutyens’ bungalow – open on all sides, with an easy, relaxed vibe. The posh new office, on the other hand, is a fortress.

New Delhi: A little over two months ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party moved from its old headquarters at 11, Ashoka Road in Lutyens’ Delhi to a high-walled, swanky structure at 6A, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, an institutional area in the bustling business district of the national capital.

But it’s not just a change in address; it’s also being perceived as a reflection of the changing culture of the party, and its increasing corporatisation.

Last week, former BJP leader and union minister Yashwant Sinha wrote in a column that “the party headquarters has become a corporate office where it is impossible to meet the CEO”, alluding to the altered functioning of the party under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah.

The BJP had to move to a new address following the Supreme Court’s directive to all political parties to relocate from the Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone. The BJP was, in fact, the first party to comply with the order, completing the construction of its new headquarters within a year. In contrast, the new Congress office is still under construction.

And this, perhaps, is another reflection of this political moment in time – a ruthless, corporate-style BJP sprinting ahead, with the lumbering Congress working at its own pace.

What BJP left behind, and what it embraced

The old BJP office was a typical Lutyens’s Zone bungalow – open on all sides and spread out, with an easy, relaxed vibe.

The multi-storeyed, posh new office, on the other hand, is like a fortress, on the lines of the Bahujan Samaj Party office in Lucknow. The new office, with its high walls, enclosed structure and darkened window panes, looks imposing, like a well-guarded top corporate office. The new building has been designed by Mumbai-based architects Nandapurkar & Associates, whose major projects include corporate office buildings, commercial establishments, and residential complexes.

Party president Amit Shah occupies the all-important fifth floor of the building, where nobody is allowed to enter without a prior, valid appointment, unlike the old office, where people could freely move around.

The third floor of the main block is reserved for the party’s eight general secretaries, unlike in the old office, which was a horizontal structure.

“The biggest advantage of the 11, Ashoka Road office was how accessible and rooted we as a party were. In this office, people need appointments to come and go. We seem modern, but unreachable,” said a BJP leader who did not wish to be identified.

The new office is hi-tech, equipped with modern communication tools, through which party leaders/workers in the capital can communicate with those in the states in real time. However, for some workers, it’s far from a welcome change.

“We could just walk into the old office, and because of that, we managed to meet even the top leaders. Now, one floor is completely out of bounds, and the office overall has a guarded vibe, which makes it very difficult for us to meet senior leaders,” said a party worker from Rajasthan, who also wished to remain anonymous.

Echoes of corporate culture

Importantly, however, this changed vibe of the BJP’s headquarters is as much a story of the new building as it is of the party’s transition to a well-oiled, professionally-managed machine under Modi and Shah. Election results in the last few years are a testament to this.

In each state, for instance, the party has a structure ready much ahead of the polls – panna pramukhs (people in charge of each page of the voters’ list), booth level committees, Shakti Kendras, different morchas and district committees, each feeding into the layer above it, and coordinating with committees parallel to it. Besides these, of course, there are the social media and communication cells which work with equal definition.

Such defined layers and well-orchestrated structures are typical of corporate functioning.

Also, true to the nature of corporates, where mergers and acquisitions are common, the BJP has mastered the art of deftly bringing in people from other parties to expand its footprint. Contrary to its earlier avatar of being a ‘people’s party’, where even the top leadership was easily accessible, the party under Modi and Shah is now more opaque — the top rung remains out of reach for most.

For a party that is managed systematically, unlike the more haphazard, chaotic and informal traditional political party culture of India, the BJP’s new headquarters is but a manifestation of this evolution.