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BJP : RSS sets rules |
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The RSS has set out a five point charter for the BJP. RSS leader Mohan Bhagwat told reporters after the organisation’s three-day national executive meeting at Chitrakoot on October 23 that BJP president L.K. Advani’s successor would have to adhere the Sangh ideology. On being asked about the suggestions given to the BJP by the RSS, he said they included ideology, organisation, training of the workers, values and communication. “We had also asked the party to resolve the intra-party disputes and not to take them to the media.” Bhagwat, however, refused to set a time-frame on when the Sangh would be speaking to Advani.
The RSS termed as “unfortunate” the public perception about divisions within the Sangh Parivar and said it was concerned over it and was making efforts to rectify it at the earliest.
The national executive adopted a resolution calling upon Hindu society to shun caste violence and embrace “samrasta” (harmony). The RSS said it had considered, apart from caste violence, unrest in the north east and Indo-Pakistan relations at the Chitrakoot meeting.
In the meantime, former BJP ideologue, K.N. Govindacharya said that “distrust and the rupture of dialogue” between the “political leadership” (BJP) and the “mass base” (RSS) have led to the current conflict between the two.
Govindacharya, who left active politics and went on a sabhatical after he was allegedly sidelined by the BJP top brass some years ago, was answering a question on the crisis in the relationship between the RSS and the BJP leaders at a news conference on October 24.
Asked for his comments on the “remote control” of the BJP by the RSS, he said each of the Sangh Parivar affiliates should be “self-sufficient and self-dependent,” but at the same time they should be “attitudinal cooperative.”
VHP volte face
In a significant vole face, reflecting the RSS’ new post-Chitrakoot strategy, VHP president Ashok Singhal has described the BJP as the “biggest Hindu force” in the country.
Singhal, along with VHP general secretary Parveen Togadia, had earlier been in the forefront of the anti-BJP campaign over the last few years. After the BJP lost power in 2004, they had even demanded that the Sangh Parivar float a new political party to replace the BJP, which had strayed from its Hindutva moorings.
Another setback for Advani
In another setback to L.K. Advani, a former BJP president K. Jana Krishnamurthy has said that Advani was hardly a national leader. In an interview published in a magazine, he said the BJP under its present chief Advani had lost its values and ideals. He said the BJP lost the Lok Sabha elections because of its neglect of these values. Krishnamurthy was in agreement with Pramod Mahajan’s remarks about a lack of team leadership in the organisation.
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