NEW DELHI, Aug 25 — The two-day meeting of the national council of the Bharatiya Janata Party, commencing from August 27 at Nagpur, will not only instal a Dalit Bangaru Laxman as the new president of the party but will also set the direction for the 20-year-old organisation.

While the national council meeting will begin on Saturday, the direction and the agenda of the party will be decided by the executive committee of the outgoing president, Mr Kushabhau Thakre, which will be attended by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The draft of the economic and political resolution, which have already been approved in principle by Mr Vajpayee, will be okayed by the executive. The general secretaries, report will also be cleared for presentation and discussion at the council meeting.

The BJP, suffering from malaise of power, is faced with not only the problem of further growth but also of ideological content.

Under Mr Vajpayee, the party has been struggling to free itself from the ideological framework that was provided by the RSS.

While on the surface it appears that Mr Vajpayee has emerged as the unquestioned leader of the party, it remains to be seen whether it is a temporary phenomenon or an ideologically structured change has taken place which will survive even the post-Vajpayee era. Questions, which are raging in the minds of not only the ordinary worker of the party but even the middle echelons of the cadre-based BJP, are about Ayodhya, swadeshi, Common Civil Code and Article 370.

When queried the party leaders tell their fellow members that these issues are not on the agenda of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government. The answer carries little conviction with the cadres.

The cadres have to face the wrath when the common man on the street asks them about these issues. Tactical retreat on these issues, which is popularly perceived as the price of power, is hardly accepted by people at large who alone can help the BJP to grow.

The prevailing dichotomy on ideological issues is difficult for cadres to accept. They have to swallow the pride which once gave them strength to engage themselves in political battles.

Without the trappings of power, it was easy to claim “ours is a party with difference” but what now, the party cadres ask the leadership often.

While the majority of ordinary workers of the BJP still come from the RSS-trained cadres, the government policies and measures reflect virtually nothing of the Sangh ideological thought.

So much so that the party even thought of dropping the economic resolution from the deliberations of the national council but then the party high command, realising that it may cause a major embarrassment, decided to have it.

From all available accounts, the economic resolution is going to be an endorsement of the Vajpayee government’s economic policies.