NEWSLINKS US EDITION COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
Sheela Bhat and Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
The two-day national executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party beginning Saturday is all set to reaffirm its faith in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's leadership and reject the Opposition's demand for the government's resignation following the tehelka.com expose.
"The people's court will decide whether the government has done the right thing by rejecting the Congress-led Opposition's demand for relinquishing power. The Opposition parties are afraid to call a spade a spade, which is why they have been stalling parliamentary proceedings so that they can run away from discussions on the tehelka issue. The Congress party's naked lust for power is truly exposed," said senior BJP politician Jagdish Prasad Mathur.
Mathur indicated that the national executive's three resolutions -- political, economic and on the Taleban's destruction of the Buddhas at Bamiyan -- had been crafted by the leadership following feedback from party units all over the country.
"I can assure you that the party is one in rejecting the Opposition's demand. All our leaders are solidly behind Prime Minister Vajpayee. The National Democratic Alliance rally in Delhi on Sunday will reveal its resolve not only to fight the Opposition, but to put things in perspective why the Opposition led by the Congress wants to dislodge the government when it is unable to come to power through democratic means," said BJP spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra.
Mathur indicated that after the meeting would be opened with a recital of the national song Vande Mataram, Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani would propose the confirmation of acting president K Jana Krishnamurthy as the party chief.
"It will refute fanciful reports by a section of the press that the name of senior party leader M Venkaiah Naidu has emerged as compromise candidate for the presidency," Mathur said.
A recent news report said the SC-ST [Scheduled Castes and Tribes] Forum including backward-caste BJP MPs had demanded that Bangaru Laxman, a dalit, be reinstated as party chief.
A visit to the BJP's Ashoka Road headquarters shows senior party leaders, including Krishnamurthy, busy preparing to face the Opposition challenge. The national executive is the most significant party exercise in the wake of tehelka.com's allegations.
As indicated by Mathur, 65 members and 35 special invitees are raring to voice their anger at the Opposition campaign against Vajpayee. Laxman, the man in the middle of the storm, however, will not attend.
In a letter to Krishnamurthy, he said he would not attend the meeting to "enable members to deliberate and discuss the matter relating to the so-called Tehelka expose in a free and frank manner in my absence."
Laxman met Vajpayee on Friday afternoon and apprised him of his decision. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh joint general secretary Madan Das Devi also had a 'casual meeting' with Laxman.
The economic resolution at the national executive will put the BJP's stamp of approval on the "amended budget" and deny the Opposition's allegation that the government was underselling profitable public-sector undertakings.
The resolution on the Taleban will underscore the party's distress at the destruction of the Buddha statues in Afghanistan, especially in Bamiyan, where the world's tallest standing Buddha has been reduced to rubble.
"Our party wants to emphasize the mediaeval vandalism of the Taleban regime in Afghanistan which has thumbed its nose at the appeals of the peace-loving international community not to destroy the ancient art and culture embodied in the Buddha statues," Mathur said.
In the midst of all these aggressive postures, the BJP leadership was trying to play down criticism of the government, particularly the prime minister's office, by the RSS.
"Look, [RSS chief K S] Sudershanji has already clarified that he did not mean the personal criticism of the prime minister following the tehelka allegations," was Malhotra's rather weak defence. He also maintained that the PMO issue would be "amicably resolved to the satisfaction of all concerned".
Mathur pointed out that the Swadeshi Jagran Manch's criticism of the government's economic policies was nothing new. "They [the SJM] have been criticising the economic policies, especially those pertaining to the WTO [World Trade Organisation]. It is nothing new," Mathur said, adding that it only reflected "our healthy traditions".
Meanwhile, the BJP has received a shot in the arm ahead of the executive's meeting with the Central Bureau of Investigation filing a first information report against Congress president Sonia Gandhi's personal assistant Vincent George for allegedly amassing assets vastly disproportionate to his known sources of income.
That the BJP has switched on to battle mode was clear from the furious slogan-shouting of its MPs who clashed with their Congress counterparts outside Parliament on Friday. "Tanashah ki beti hai, George se paise leti hai [She is the daughter of a despot, she takes money from Vincent George]," the BJP MPs shouted about Gandhi.
The Complete Coverage | Defence sites
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
