The Hindu : New Delhi News : Party yet to assign any role to Khurana

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 07, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Party yet to assign any role to Khurana

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, NOV. 6. The former Delhi Chief Minister, Madan Lal Khurana, is back in city politics but is yet to be assigned a role by the party. A confused and directionless agenda is what Mr. Khurana has been pursuing since his return after his re-launch plank was "hijacked'' by the Congress Member of Parliament from New Delhi, Ajay Maken, and later by the Sheila Dikshit Government and the Centre through its decision to act fast on the issue of regularisation of illegal industries in the Capital's non-conforming areas.

Interestingly, while announcing his decision to resign, Mr. Khurana had made closure of industries his "main plank'' for taking on the Central and State governments. However, he was robbed of this plank by the swift action of Mr. Maken and then by the Central and State Governments to address the issue. Mr. Khurana has been unable to decide his future course of action and his continued focus on a single issue that has almost been sorted out is not helping his cause.

"The message going out is that there are no issues other than the closure of industries in Delhi. Other problems faced by the Capital's residents seem to have taken a backseat. This is something that is not going to make things easy for Mr. Khurana who is already faced with opposition from within his own party,'' a senior party leader remarked.

Mr. Khurana's meetings with the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, and the Union Urban Development Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, are learnt to have not gone down well with the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Delhi as well as at the Central level. It is being felt that Mr. Khurana was diluting the issue by meeting Ms. Dikshit and then Mr. Azad who have nothing new to offer and are only reiterating their old positions.

Political observers feel that closure of industries was no longer a big issue and Mr. Khurana was merely trying to rekindle interest in something that has already been decided. The notification issued by the Union Urban Development Ministry providing for changes in the Master Plan of Delhi has further diluted the issue and the BJP can no longer expect to gain political mileage from it. This kind of closure had happened in the past also but things have continued to drift over the past four years. "The sealing of industries is still continuing in many areas and the court orders do not provide for such an action. The status report filed by the Delhi Government on November 1 in the Supreme Court blames politicians for resorting to agitational means but makes no mention of changes being made in the Master Plan.

These are the issues on which Mr. Khurana should go to the town instead of flogging a dead horse,'' a Delhi BJP leader stated.

Coupled with this, delay in accommodating Mr. Khurana in the Central team of BJP office-bearers has further complicated matters.

There is growing feeling within the party that Mr. Khurana is not being included in the party set-up as the Central leadership was bent upon promoting new leadership in Delhi. One section of Mr. Khurana's supporters is of the view that he should float a non-political front and fight for the rights of the people. In this way, he would get support of the other parties and organisations thereby enabling him to form a pressure group for his own party.

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