It was an agency report that somewhat cheered up the visibly-shaken close aides and diehard lieutenants of Murli Manohar Joshi at his 6, Raisina Road official bungalow this evening. It said the Prime Minister had delayed his departure from Istanbul and taken stock of political developments at home. There was a flicker of hope among scurrying aides that the proximity of Joshi’s house and Shastri Bhavan will remain the same. An aide insisted over phone he had seen the agency report and it said ‘‘PM was asking Joshi to hold on.’’ His final word : And Joshi would always abide by Vajpayee’s wishes. Joshi’s political isolation is difficult to interpret. He continued to receive sympathetic phone calls pleading that he withdraw his resignation. Strangely, very few drove over to Raisina Road to call on him. As though few BJP leaders would risk being seen in his company. Exceptions to this attitude included Acharya Giriraj Kishore who trundled in at 8 pm. Earlier, I&B Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had walked in with a sombre face reflecting his party’s disquiet over the day’s developments. Those who preferred a telephone conversation far outnumbered the visitors. A politically astute Advani had pleaded with Joshi not to put in his papers immediately after the verdict. So did BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu. And thereafter, the phone rang intermittently. Pramod Mahajan chipped in with his bit of ‘‘don’t quit, Joshiji.’’ Given the way the BJP is eyeing a renewed Ayodhya campaign with relish, words of sympathy and solidarity poured in from the RSS camp with most heavyweights, K.S. Sudershan, Mohan Bhagvat and Madan Das Devi, exchanging a few words with the HRD minister, again over phone. But that Joshi’s political gamble does not end with his resignation was more than proved by the presence of the electronic media and their interest this evening to record the arrival and departure of every political personality. At 5 pm in the HRD ministry at Shastri Bhavan, the section officers who hung around dissected Joshi’s five year tenure as the Minister. Issues that dominated discussions were the saffron agenda, choice of loyalists — not always of RSS background — to head important educational institutions and the impetus he had given to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. And more than half of them believed Joshi would be back. There was a shade of nervousness about Joshi when he arrived late for a function organised by the Research Institute of Vedic Culture, Institute of Vaastu Science and the Gangaram Hospital at East of Kailash this morning. Suddenly, an announcement was made that Joshi would speak first. Though he spoke first, he appeared to have changed his mind on the dais and stayed back through the function. And when he was leaving after 1 pm, the reporters crowded around him and asked him why he taken the decision of quitting if charged.
