NDA allies won’t march to Savarkar-Uma tune

The BJP’s success in getting the NDA’s endorsement on the twin issues of Savarkar and Uma Bharati may prove shortlived with growin...

The BJP’s success in getting the NDA’s endorsement on the twin issues of Savarkar and Uma Bharati may prove shortlived with growing resentment among its allies — particularly the Janata Dal (United) — on the manner in which the Opposition’s agenda is being hijacked by ‘‘Hindutva concerns’’.

JD(U) leaders are particularly angry with their chief and NDA convenor George Fernandes for playing along with the BJP without consulting anyone in the party. ‘‘There was no meeting of the JD(U) parliamentary party to discuss the strategy but George unilaterally endorsed the BJP’s decision to disrupt Parliament on the two issues,’’ a party leader said.

At its two-day national executive from July 31, the JD(U) had passed a resolution to break ties with the BJP if it returned to hardline Hindutva.

JD(U) sources said while the party was united in the campaign against tainted ministers, more so because all of them hail from Bihar and belong to the RJD, it did not share the BJP’s perception on either Savarkar or the Uma Bharati issue. Nor do JD(U) leaders Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav or Digvijay Singh share the BJP’s (and George Fernandes’) antipathy towards Congress and Sonia Gandhi, sources said. One reason for Fernandes joining hands with the BJP and Shiv Sena over the Uma Bharati arrest is his animus towards Sonia Gandhi, sources said. This was clear from the NDA resolution adopted this morning which said: ‘‘Indeed, our worst fears about Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin have now come true…by protecting tainted ministers in the UPA government…(and) seeking the arrest of Uma Bharati, Sonia Gandhi has clearly shown that she does not understand the history and ethos of India, nor the psyche of the Indian people.’’

While Fernandes continues to be bitterly opposed to the Congress, large sections of the JD(U) are keen to have a tie-up with the party in the coming Bihar Assembly elections, sources said. ‘‘If the Congress leaves Laloo, we are ready to leave BJP. A Congress-Paswan-JD(U) combine can defeat the RJD,’’ a JD(U) leader said. Elections in Bihar and Jharkhand are due early next year.

Other NDA allies such as the Trinamool Congress and TDP are wary of backing an RSS-backed mass campaign on the ‘‘tiranga’’ or Savarkar. Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has not attended Parliament this session and her party went unrepresented at today’s NDA meeting.

TDP leader Yerran Naidu, on the other hand, said while his party had agreed to ‘‘floor coordination’’ with the BJP on the Savarkar and Uma Bharati issues, it did not mean that it would join any nationwide campaign.