FRONT PAGE | Sunday, June 14, 2009 | Email | Print | 
Uncivil war in BJP
Kumar Uttam | New Delhi
Rajnath wants dissenters against going public
On the day when BJP Chief Rajnath Singh issued a gag order asking party leaders to refrain from airing their grievances in public, vice president Yashwant Sinha stirred up a hornet’s nest by resigning from all party posts and blaming the organisation for paying a “premium on failure”.
As there was a threat of a “free for all” scenario coming into being in the BJP, Rajnath Singh, who was not left with many choices, consulted senior leader LK Advani here and within hours accepted Sinha’s resignation. It was a clear message to many other defiant leaders in the organisation that more heads could roll if they continued to wash dirty linen in public.
As many within the party were challenging his authority, Rajnath Singh chose to talk tough and cautioned leaders of disciplinary action, no matter how big he or she was, if they shared views outside the party platform about internal deliberations or something that negatively impacts the party’s image.
With the party apparently plunging deeper into crisis, both LK Advani and Rajnath Singh agreed that the situation had become too serious to ignore and, if they had to act, the time was now.
Eventually, it was decided in the evening that Yashwant Singh’s resignation from the post of vice president, national executive and as in-charge for Karnataka should be accepted.
Through his statement released in the afternoon, Rajnath Singh cautioned that any leaders going public with his grievance “henceforth” would invite disciplinary action. BJP sources explained the word “henceforth” in the party chief’s statement as “relief” to Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh, leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, general secretary Vinay Katiyar, Rajya Sabha MP Kalraj Mishra, Advani’s aide Sudheendra Kulkarni and others for the “mistakes”.
“By taking action against these people, we would have created an impression that the party was panicking. Now it is the time to act. We are not going to spare anybody who will behave in a manner that he is not required to,” a senior BJP leader said.
Jaswant Singh, Sudheendra Kulkarni, Vinay Katiyar and others had spelt out different reasons for the party’s debacle, the worst in the recent years, and had jumped the gun to pin the blame on someone else. But Yashwant Sinha was not that fortunate in doing exactly the same.
He was the first leader who went public even before the President could receive the copy of his resignation. In fact, TV channels started flashing the “Breaking News” when Rajnath Singh was preparing to address a scheduled Press conference.
In his letter, Yashwant Sinha pointed out that “it appears as if some people in the party are determined to ensure that the principle of accountability does not prevail so that their own little perch is not disturbed.”
The statement was apparently aimed at Arun Jaitley and Sudheendra Kulkarni, the two persons who were involved in the campaign management of the BJP and later wrote articles in different newspapers and magazine spelling reasons about the party’s defeat. Yashwant Sinha was candid in asking many questions to Rajnath Singh, one of the most important being the rat race for posts in the BJP.
The two important portfolios — leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha and deputy leader in Lok Sabha — have gone to Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, who are considered close to LK Advani, who himself agreed to retain the post of the leader of the opposition after initial reluctance.
With three important posts already filled up with LK Advani and his close confidants, and Rajnath Singh occupying the party president’s post, not much room was left for leaders like Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and others.
Many BJP leaders are also in the race for the chairmanship of the parliamentary committees that comes with additional benefits. LK Advani, as leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, has the right to decide the names for these posts.
Incidentally, Yashwant Sinha has written in his letter, “It is difficult to avoid the impression that in the BJP we put a premium on failure. Our reluctance to introspect and introspect comprehensively and openly is unacceptable to a large number of people within the party. So is the rat race for posts.”
Rajnath Singh has been in the line of fire of many leaders for allegedly trying to avoid introspection and analysing the reasons behind the defeat.
“This is far from truth,” the party chief claimed, adding this obviously has to be an exhaustive and collective exercise and it has already begun at various levels. The entire process will culminate in a detailed “Chintan Baithak” after the conclusion of this session of Parliament in August.
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