The BJP, it seems, has abandoned green and minimised saffron. Green and saffron have been its official colours since the time the party was founded 27 years ago.
A private agency has mistakenly taken saffron out of the new hoarding at the party’s headquarters in Delhi
NEW DELHI: The BJP, it seems, has abandoned green and minimised saffron. Green and saffron have been its official colours since the time the party was founded 27 years ago. But the party central headquarters at 11, Ashoka Road, is now lit with the colour it hates with passion, red. Saffron is only on the margins, thanks to a goof-up by a private agency.
The party’s official colours were silently unveiled for the public on Thursday. A party leader sarcastically remarked, “We have turned into a red light zone”. A freshly-designed bright neon sign hoarding has been put up at the headquarters’ main gates. Surprisingly, it’s red with saffron only on the fringes.
Party mandarins had outsourced the hoarding to a private agency. In 1980, when the BJP was founded, the party had, after much deliberation, decided to have green and saffron as its official colours. The current goof-up is something the party can ill afford at this stage.
A number of senior leaders are embarrassed over the design of the new hoarding and complaints have been lodged with the leadership. Tongues are wagging about what this means for the main opposition party, which claims to be ideologically right of centre? There are various connotations: the party is turning red like the CPI(M), or it is competing with the Left and not with the Congress in the next elections.
The BJP has been positioning itself as an alternate to the Congress. Another interpretation is that the party has already assumed it is in power and has put a red light over its headquarters. A senior leader, however, defended the choice of colours. “Don’t we have a right to experiment with our neon signs?” he asked. But the fact remains there are too many red faces in the party over this.
s_singh@dnaindia.net
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