Advani's 'yatra' put off because of party crisis

Updated on Thursday, August 27, 2009, 16:01 IST

New Delhi: The crisis in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has led to another casualty: star leader L K Advani's much-hyped 'yatra' of next month that has now been postponed, party sources said on Thursday. The 'yatra', an Advani trademark since September 1990, was aimed at rejuvenating the party's demoralised cadres in the wake of the Lok Sabha poll debacle and before a round of state elections.
"We thought of timing it to begin before the Maharashtra assembly elections in October. This has been postponed," a senior party leader told a news service. The BJP is a major player in Maharashtra where it is allied with the Shiv Sena. The BJP is also a key player in Haryana. Advani, 81, had announced at the party's national executive meeting here in June that he would travel across the country to explain to party workers the reasons the BJP lost the Lok Sabha battle when it was hoping to dislodge the Congress. "In order to let party (members) know both the opportunities and tasks before us, I have decided to tour the entire country. I shall be visiting all the states, and more than one place in some of the bigger states," Advani had said. According to party insiders, Advani was to have begun his journey from the three states scheduled to go to the polls, probably in October: Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh. However, the crisis that has now enveloped the party has forced Advani to do a rethink, party sources told IANS. The BJP expelled former cabinet minister Jaswant Singh last week for his controversial book praising Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah. But there has been no end to BJP's troubles. Arun Shourie, a Rajya Sabha MP, also raised the banner of revolt saying some BJP leaders were behaving like "Humpty Dumpty". Adding to this, the defiance of former chief ministers Vasundhara Raje of Rajasthan and B.C. Khanduri of Uttarakhand has jolted the party. "For the time being, Advani's programme has been postponed. It may not take off for a while if this crisis does not blow over," said a senior party leader who cannot be named as he is not authorised to speak to the press. Unlike his previous "rath yatras", this tour was not to hold public meetings but to primarily interact with BJP workers at all levels and to get a first-hand account of what ails the party. The most famous of Advani's yatras took place in 1990 when the BJP was propping up the coalition government of Prime Minister V.P. Singh. Amid a wave of Hindu nationalist fervour, Advani was to have travelled from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh in support of a temple at the site of the Babri mosque. It was marred by violence. Advani was arrested in Bihar, leading to the collapse of the V.P. Singh government and fresh elections. The yatra is credited with building up the popularity of Advani and leading to the BJP taking power in New Delhi.

According to me, the real crisis in the BJP is the antics of Vasundhara Raje, who has mocked at the very concept of discipline. She has to be forthwith sacked. The cases of Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie and Kulkarni cannot be categorized as indiscipline. Theirs were cases of having a difference of opinion on certain matters. The party took a timely decision in showing Jaswant the door as he was seen eulogizing the arch villain of partition. BJP would be unable to live with such a eulogizer amongst its leadership. Arun Shourie has only disgraced himself by giving an interview that sounded more like gossip and calling his party president names was unbecoming of Shourie. BJP can afford to continue with him in the party unless his defense turns out to be more pungent than his attack. As for Kulkarni, he has not attacked the party in any way. He only said that he is leaving the party and implying that he indeed intends to attack the party in future. Therefore it was gentlemanly of him to announce his decision to resign first. Hence, in all the three cases, BJP can afford to deal with the issues in its stride. But the case of Vasundhara Raje is different. Any license to discipline is an invitation to riddle the party with subverts. Sack her immediately and to hell with her. -K.Venugopal - Mumbai

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