Other States - Rajasthan   

Raje absence makes BJP meet one-sided

Sunny Sebastian

Party men question the undue hurry shown by the State leadership in organising the meeting

JAIPUR: The two-day meeting of the BJP State executive committee that ended in Jodhpur on Sunday remained a one-sided exercise in the absence of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who is yet to return from abroad. The promises of "mukt prabodhan" (free expression) at the meeting, made to the workers at the outset by the organisers remained unfulfilled and the absence of Ms. Raje and her senior Cabinet colleagues made all the talk about better coordination between "satta aur sangathan" (Government and the party) meaningless.

At least a section of the party men here had questioned the undue hurry shown by the State party leadership in organising the meeting, also addressed by BJP president Rajnath Singh. At any rate the wait could have been less than a week if the party was sincere about the participation of the Chief Minister, it was pointed out.

The meeting, held at Tinwri, a suburb of Jodhpur, was significant as it followed the recent Rajasthan visits of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and president of Bharatiya Janshakti, Uma Bharti. Ms. Gandhi visited drought-hit areas in Jaisalmer in Jodhpur division before coming down to Jaipur to address a party workers' training camp. Ms. Bharti toured Kota division, the home turf of Ms. Raje, attracting sizeable crowds.

The absence of the Chief Minister was so overwhelming that Mr. Rajnath Singh volunteered to announce that she had gone abroad with his consent. He justified her trip and appealed to party men to work together. State party president Mahesh Sharma, Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria, former party president Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi, former Union Ministers Jaswant Singh, Kailash Meghwal and Jaskaur Meena, and former national treasurer Ramdas Agarwal were among those who addressed the meeting.

The problems the party men voiced mostly concerned the functioning of the Government and the style of the Ministers but the meeting seemingly skirted the issues even as the participants targeted the Ministers, especially on the issue of transfers of Government staff. Transfers are a kind of industry in Rajasthan irrespective of the Government in power and the party men generally battle the Ministers on this front.

Mr. Rajnath Singh and Mr. Jaswant Singh, who addressed a public meeting in Jodhpur, targeted the UPA Government to say that the country was "not safe" under the present dispensation at the Centre.

The political resolution passed at the meeting charged the UPA Government with discriminating against Rajasthan. The charges of discrimination pertained to allocation of funds for purchase of mustard from farmers at minimum support price and neglecting the plea from the State for Rs.1560 crore in cash and 15 lakh tones of wheat as assistance for drought relief. The economic resolution blamed the Centre for the recent increase in fuel prices.

Dr. Sharma announced setting up of a committee for coordination between the organisation and the Government by July 15. There was no word about the rest of the contentious issues such as the appointment of party men to the posts of corporations and other bodies.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Raje absence makes BJP meet one-sided
Colleges running illegal courses warned

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu