By : K S Chawla
With the ouster of three BJP stalwarts namely L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee from the parliamentary board of the BJP, the infighting in the BJP has become intense. Three senior most leaders are known as the ‘Janamdata’ of the present BJP as these three leaders are mainly responsible who built the strong cadre with their hardwork and sacrifices. No doubt Atal Bihari Vajpayee is now a sick man, but his contribution to the BJP organization cannot be written off as the Modi-Shah duo is trying to do. It was because of the efforts of these three leaders that the BJP came into power in 1998 and ruled the country for six years in alliance with other partners.
It was L K Advani who as president of the BJP took out a Rath Yatra in the country and built the morale of the demoralized cadres. He was succeeded by Murli Manohar Joshi as president of the BJP who undertook Ekta Yatra in the country. He visited Punjab when the state was under the grip of strong militant violence.
Similarly it was Atal Bihari Vajpayee who could lead the coalition government in the country for six years and gave new direction to the politics of the country. In fact, Vajpayee set the example of running a coalition government consisting of political parties which had diverse ideologies. But he proved a very successful leader of the coalition government.
In 2004, Congress led the UPA-I Government under the Prime Ministership of Dr. Manmohan Singh and the first tenure of this coalition government was smooth and in 2009, got another opportunity to rule the country. But in the second tenure Congressmen and the ministers of the alliance partners indulged in largescale malpractices and there surfaced a number of scams which have no parallels. Following these scams and Narendra Modi’s euphoria resulted in the rout of the Congress and its alliance partners.
BJP won 282 Lok Sabha seats and emerged as the single largest party with absolute majority. The new government under the Prime Ministership of Modi has been formed as NDA Government with representation to the alliance partners of the NDA.
Since Narendra Modi has emerged as a powerful leader of the BJP and the victory of the BJP is attributed to him (Modi), he is now being built as the only one leader of the BJP – in other words the emphasis is on the personality cult. He has formed the cabinet of his own choice and the ministers of his cabinet cannot take any independent decision and all decisions are taken by Modi alone. After the induction of Rajnath Singh in the cabinet, he had to resign from the presidentship of the party. Modi has succeeded in having his own man Amit Shah as the president of the BJP and the country has two-man team which is running the affairs of the nation with a population of 135 million. Amit Shah has proved his mettle in the Vidhan Sabha elections as BJP won 73 seats out of 80 in UP state where he was incharge of the election campaign.
Amit Shah who is still facing charges in alleged fake encounter of Nishrat Jehan in Gujarat has been given a free hand in forming his team. He has been described as a ‘man of the match’ after the huge victory of BJP in UP.
While framing the new team of the BJP organization, Amit Shah has chucked off trio-Atal, Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. He has made the ‘Margdarshan Mandal’ of the BJP. This is a new event in the History of the BJP. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi have been sidelined because they had opposed the nomination of Modi as Prime Ministerial Candidate.
Modi-Shah duo is reported to be ignoring the RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat now and Bhagwat is not being given the importance which he deserves. No doubt that the two important functionaries of RSS have been taken in the organization and made general secretaries of the BJP.
In view of the fact that Mohan Bhagwat is being ignored by the duo, Bhagwat had to say, “Kuch log bol rahe hain ke party ko safalta mili hai. Kuch Log bol rahe hain ki kisi vayakti ke vaja se parivartan hua hai’. This change is not duo to any individual or party, the people wanted a change and they have overthrown the Congress government. Bhagwat has expressed his anguish over the treatment being meted out to him by Modi and Amit Shah. But they are least bothered about these utterances. RSS leadership was against the induction of Smriti Irani in the cabinet but Modi insisted on taking her in his cabinet. She has been given a very important portfolio of HRD ministry which deals with the education policies of the country. There has been strong criticism of induction of Smriti Irani because of her educational background.
Lately Rajnath Singh who is home minister of the country and was instrumental in declaring Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP as President, has been slighted. His son wanted ticket from UP in by election and has been denied the same. Not only this, his son has been charged with accepting bribe money. When Rajnath protested, PMO issued a denial to pacify him. The BJP hierarchy is witnessing a tussle over the No. 2 position in the cabinet. Some vested interests launched propaganda against the son of Rajnath Singh. However, while leaving for Japan visit, Modi said that in his absence Rajnath would look after the national affairs and preside over the cabinet meetings. This has some-how pacified Rajnath Singh.
However, the senior ministers of the cabinet are unhappy that snooping is being done over their activities. The house of Nitin Gadkari was allegedly bugged and there was hue and cry by him. He also made a complaint to the RSS Chief in this connection. Gadkiri is very close to the RSS Chief.
Similarly, the ministers complain that relevant files of their ministers are being sent directly to the PMO and they are not taken into confidence. This clearly shows that all is not well with the BJP party and the Government. The writ of Modi-Shah only runs.
KS Chawla is a senior journalist.
He can be contacted at 9988644244
