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BJP : RSS mounts pressure to make Advani quit

	July 18, 2005

Faced with BJP president L.K. Advani’s refusal to quit, the RSS has mounted pressure on the party for his ouster. Earlier last week, it was widely expected that Advani will himself resign as BJP president after the RSS made known its displeasure at his statements in Pakistan on Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s secular credentials. But there was an anti-climax on Tuesday, July 12, when the BJP announced that Advani will continue as party president. The BJP leaders took the stand that the RSS had not specifically asked for Advani’s resignation, but only wanted the party to give prime importance to ideology. BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj told newspersons after a meeting of party general secretaries, “There is no confusion in the Sangh Parivar or the BJP on Advani’s continuation.” But she circumvented questions on whether Advani, who was elected party president in November last year, would complete his full three year term.



After this development, it was thought that Advani would be allowed to continue till December so that he could oversee the party campaign in the coming Assembly elections in Bihar, likely to be held in September or October. But five members of the BJP National Executive came out with statements or letters on Saturday, July 16, making it clear that the RSS wants Advani to throw in the towel sooner than later. Former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana wrote to Advani asking him to quit both as party president and leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Parliament. Four other senior BJP leaders including two former party presidents, Bangaru Laxman and Jana Krishnamurthy, also dashed off letter asking Advani to honour the one-man-one-post norm, and raised issues arising out of his Pakistan visit. They as well as two other leaders, Pyare Lal Khandelwal and Ashwini Kumar wanted these matters to be discussed at the national executive meeting beginning in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on July 21. There are reports that 30 others members of the National Executive have also written to Advani conveying similar views.

The RSS top brass is reported to be upset by BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj’s statements that at no time had they asked Advani to resign. On Thursday, July 14, some BJP office bearers were summoned to the RSS office at Jhandewalan, in Delhi, and told that they should choose between Advani and the Sangh. Sushma Swaraj is reported to have been reprimanded for factually incorrect briefing of the media. The RSS contacted each member of the BJP National Executive and told them about the decision taken at the RSS conclave at Surat, in Gujarat, which came down heavily on some BJP leaders’ deviation from the Sangh ideology, and wanted corrective action to be taken.



Faced with the RSS onslaught, Advani met former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Saturday, July 17, but does not appear to have receive much relief from that. Vajpayee is reported to have advised him not to escalate the confrontation with the RSS. Sushma Swaraj also met Advani after she was taken to task by the RSS leaders for her wrong briefing and is believed to have told him to step down.



Party sources say that Advani is holding out against the pressures from the Sangh Parivar, including the BJP, for him to resign. But it is difficult to forecast when Advani will succumb to the pressures, if at all.

A meeting of the Parliamentary party leaders would be held at former Prime Minister Vajpayee’s residence today. As of now, the BJP is going ahead with its three-day Chennai national executive meeting from July 21.



RSS sets its face against Advani

The RSS is reported to have decided to convert the Chennai meeting into an event of embarrassment for the BJP president. Important RSS leaders are to congregate at the Sangh headquarters in Nagpur to take a call on Advani’s refusal to heed the unambiguous signal to step down. RSS chief K. Sudarshan is reported to have put off his proposed foreign trip while important Sangh functionaries like Madandas Devi and Suresh Soni have been told to cancel their engagements.



The meeting will, in all probability, censure Advani for being in denial over the deviation over Jinnah in Karachi last month.

Bent upon harrying Advani, the RSS has been asking members of the National Executive to force Advani to put three issues - Karachi trip, erosion of ideology and one-man-one-post (translated in the party circles as leave the party presidency in exchange for continuing as Leader of the Opposition) - on the agenda. The RSS meeting with BJP leaders on Thursday last, as well as the readiness of the members of the national executive to go along with it, denote quite a few things. It shows that while Advani may have persuaded the central office-bearers of the party to put up with him till December, the Sangh remains determined to secure his ouster. Secondly, it confirms that the Central-level solidarity with Advani does not quite translate into a sympathy for him at a time when he faces unrelenting pressure from the Sangh.

The RSS decision to force the issue has been provoked by what its leaders call “a breach of understanding on the part of Advani followers.” Sources said that while Mohan Bhagwat, acting general secretary of RSS, had clearly told Advani that the pater familias in the saffron clan wanted him to step down, Sangh leadership agreed not to tell the same to BJP office bearers, following an agreement with Advani’s emissaries, Jaswant Singh and Venkaiah Naidu.

Singh and Naidu had requested the Sangh leaders not to disclose the details of their meeting with Advani to BJP office-bearers who were to visit them the same evening.

The RSS leaders who kept their word, were upset when they saw Sushma Swaraj publicly denying that the Sangh leaders ever wanted Advani to resign as party chief.



RSS searches for Advani’s replacement

The RSS has drawn up a last of 87 BJP leaders and functionaries to be consulted to decide on the next BJP chief. An RSS functionary said that one of the main reasons that the BJP’s second rung leadership was reluctant to see a change of guard was the TINA (there is no alternative) factor.

“If problems arose with Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then Advani is the alternative. But in Advani’s case, the alternative is the main problem”, he added

The RSS functionary said Advani’s defiance despite clear hints by the RSS that he should go, had hurt the image of the organisation.



RSS stunned by Advani’s refusal to quit

Earlier last week, the RSS was stunned when Advani said a firm ‘NO’ to the demand for his resignation. This was the first time that a BJP leader had openly defied the RSS since the creation of the Sangh’s political arm, the Jan Sangh. Till now, none of the RSS decisions concerning the BJP leadership had ever been met with a veto.



Advani prefaced his refusal to quit by refusing to accept the charge that he had violated the Sangh’s ideology by his utterances in Pakistan. He is said to have told the Sangh leaders that all his actions were inspired by Jan Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.

The imperatives of the coming Assembly elections in Bihar are reported to have played a part in some of the BJP leaders keeping silent on, if not endorsing, Advani’s defiance of the RSS diktat. They thought that under Advani’s leadership, the BJP-led NDA will have a chance of coming victorious in the Bihar elections. Former Prime Minister Vajpayee also helped Advani by not supporting the RSS plan to effect a change of leadership in the party.

“It is no secret that Vajpayee does not consider present RSS chief Sudershan as his great friend. He had never forgiven Sudershan for his television interview in March in which he slammed his tenure as PM, criticised his principal secretary Brajesh Mishra and took dig at his family”, BJP insiders said. The oust-Advani plan had its origin in that interview wherein Sudershan had asked Vajpayee and Advani to make way for younger leaders. The Jinnah chapter was only a catalyst.



NDA upset at BJP crisis

BJP allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are getting restive at the crisis in the party as it is the leading light of the alliance. If the BJP crumbles, it may result in the formation of new alliances or combines. Giving expression to the NDA concerns, the alliance convener, George Fernandes said on Tuesday, July 12, that the RSS should stop dabbling in politics and confine itself to socio-cultural activities. This drew a strong reaction from BJP leaders who said that George Fernandes had overstepped his limits as NDA convener.

“We are sad (with Fernandes’ statement). We disagree with it. The NDA is an alliance of political parties which have their own identity,” party spokesperson Sushma Swaraj said in strong defence of the RSS.

Asserting that the BJP was inspired by the ideals of the RSS and was dedicated to it, she said : “Fernandes has gone beyond his jurisdiction and he should respect the feelings and sentiments of the party.”

Fernandes, however, refused to withdraw his statement. He defended BJP president Advani’s Jinnah remark, a bone of contention between him and the RSS, and strongly objected to the “RSS arrogating to itself a political role.”

Fernandes said he spoke in his “personal capacity and he was worried about the fallout of the happenings in the RSS and the BJP on the Bihar elections.