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Saturday, Jun 11, 2005

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National

BJP crisis — from resignation to resolution

Neena Vyas

Some partymen say the chapter is not entirely closed and that Mr. Advani may have been given only a reprieve

NEW DELHI: From day one of the crisis in the Bharatiya Janata Partythe Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh made it clear that BJP leader L.K. Advani's remark that Mohammad Ali Jinnah was a secular leader was not acceptable to it.

Mr. Advani himself sensed that for, he wrote in his resignation, submitted to general secretary Sanjay Joshi June 7, that he had written it before leaving Karachi.

On June 6 when Mr. Advani returned here from Pakistan only a handful of party leaders went to receive him at the airport. He demanded a "debate" on Jinnah while defending his articulation, made in Karachi a couple of days earlier, on the founder of Pakistan as a man who wanted a secular Pakistan. That evening a few BJP leaders, including M. Venkaiah Naidu and Pramod Mahajan, went to the RSS headquarters here in Jhandewalan, where they were told categorically that the Sangh would not accept Mr. Advani's formulation and there could be "no debate" on it.

No party leader came out in support of Mr. Advani's views on Jinnah.

Vajpayee's defence

The tough talking by the RSS led Mr. Advani to submit his resignation letter on Tuesday morning. It was only then did the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, say in Bhuntar, on his way back from a holiday in Himachal Pradesh, that Mr. Advani's remarks were misinterpreted.

By evening, the BJP scheduled a meeting of its parliamentary board and office-bearers for Wednesday. Several senior leaders said in private that it was the end of the road for Mr. Advani as party president. The former Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, put a question mark on his continuation even as Leader of the Opposition.

The RSS reiterated its stance — no debate on Jinnah, no question of review of its views. And there seemed no meeting ground between the RSS and Mr. Advani, who said in his resignation letter that there was no need for him to retract or review anything he said in Karachi. However, after the June 8 party resolution was taken to Mr. Advani appealing him to reconsider the resignation, he said he would consider the request and convey his decision the next day, although the previous day and even on Wednesday morning he had publicly stated there was no question of his withdrawing his letter.

The hint that Mr. Advani was inclined to stay on as president led his camp followers in the party to work hard on a compromise formula that would satisfy him to the extent it was possible without annoying the RSS. Some leaders expressed shock that Mr. Advani was allowing himself to be persuaded to take back his resignation after making repeated statements that his mind was made up on giving up the party position. Party leaders feared that that the public would perceive it as a "drama." There was a hint from some sections in the BJP that he changed his mind because the RSS did not agree to a "proxy Advani president."

The climbdown

As the compromise was being worked out another meeting of the parliamentary board, scheduled for Thursday, was postponed to Friday. And during those 24 hours Mr. Advani agreed to climb down from his "no explanation" of Karachi statements, go with the RSS and party stand that Jinnah could not be considered secular, that he was the author of the two-nation theory, that the state (Pakistan) he founded was theocratic and non-secular, and that Jinnah led a communal agitation in which thousands of innocent people were killed.

On Friday Mr. Advani arrived at the party office just 10 minutes before the start of the meeting. He participated in it.

The statement was read out and Mr. Vajpayee said Mr. Advani's Pakistan visit, including his laying the foundation for the Katasraj temple, was an "important step and he hoped that as a result relations between the two countries would become stronger".

He did not say a word on Mr. Advani's remarks on Jinnah and no attempt was made by anyone at the meeting to justify them.

The statement was then adopted and Mr. Advani announced that he was grateful to the party for its support and praise of his leadership.

He said a "wrong impression had been created in the country [about his Jinnah remarks] and he was glad those had been clarified [in the statement]."

Everyone clapped; the crisis stood resolved.

But the RSS through its spokesperson Ram Madhav made it clear that what Mr. Advani said about Jinnah in Karachi was against the Sangh ideology: "The issue on which a controversy had arisen is now over. From day one we had said we were not interested in a debate on the subject [of Jinnah]. What had been said about Jinnah [by Mr. Advani] was against our ideology and therefore we demanded a clarification that has now been made. It was not simply a question of an RSS view on the subject but a question of historical facts [about Jinnah's role in Partition and the 1946-47 riots]."

There is a view among some in the BJP that this chapter is not entirely closed; that Mr. Advani may have been given only a short reprieve.

The crisis spawns jokes

NEW DELHI: Through the weeklong crisis in the Bharatiya Janata Party, its leaders received many jokes through short messaging service on their mobile phones.

"Jinnah wahan, marna yahan," (Jinnah is there, and we are suffering here) was received as an SMS by a leader. It was a take on an old song in the Raj Kapoor film Mera Naam Joker. The original song ran: "jeena yahan, marna yahan, iske siwa jana kahan (we have to live and die here, where else can we go).

Some said the full text of the joke should have run like this: "Jinnah wahan, marna yahan, RSS ke siwa jana kahan." Where could the BJP have gone except with the RSS?

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