Swadeshi lobby now guns for Yashwant Sinha

Ironically, it was the same lobby which was instrumental in bringing Yashwant Sinha much against the wishes of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in March 1998. Though the PM had opted for Jaswant Singh for the post, the decision was overturned by the protagonists of the Swadeshi.

If sources in the Swadeshi Jagran Manch are to be believed, it wants Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi to replace Sinha.

The lobby is also against Power Minister P R Kumaramangalam and Disinvestment Minister Arun Jaitley who are vigorously implementing the government’s liberalisation and privatisation policy in their respective ministries.

In fact, the economic policy issues came up for a candid discussion last week at a dinner where RSS chief K S Sudarshan was present. Four key members of the Swadeshi — S Gurumurthy, T V R Shenoy, Deenanath Mishra and Balbir Punj — were also present at the dinner. Disinvestment Minister Arun Jaitley was also invited.

It is learnt that Jaitley tried to give a perspective on disinvestment by saying that the government should not be expected to implement the Left’s agenda. “The BJP had always been for privatisation and liberalisation. Now that the Left is against it, the BJP cannot forget its own agenda,” was the argument.

But Jaitley was in a hopeless minority and it was felt that government’s open-door policy was harming the Indian workers and the industry.

This lobby feels that Yashwant Sinha has done more damage to the cause of Swadeshi and bending backwards to oblige foreign companies to prosper at the cost of the Indian industry.

While some of the allies of the BJP in the NDA are opposing the open-door policy for foreigners and “mad disinvestment process” Yashwant Sinha is going out of his way to allow foreign companies to make a killing.

Since it is difficult for the RSS and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch to gun for Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran for advancing deadline by three years to import items under the OGL, these bodies feel that removal of Sinha and induction of Murli Manohar Joshi will halt this process somewhat.

They also feel that Sinha has been over-enthusiastic in implementing the economic agenda assigned to him by the Prime Minister’s Office rather than taking care of the philosophy of the Swadeshi and of the RSS.

Since the talk of a reshuffle and expansion of the Union Council of Ministry is already on and initial exercise has begun in the PMO, the Swadeshi lobby is active.

It has lent support to Murli Manohar Joshi as his track record in the HRD ministry has been highly appreciated by hardliners in the party. Joshi has been inducting hardcore sympathisers of the BJP in all key institutions and even taking on the Left with a heavy hand in correcting the historical perspective.

Union Home Minister L K Advani who normally plays the role of a bridge between the Prime Minister and the hardliners, has a tough task at hand again. He is reported to be of the view that there should be continuity in the ministries particularly in the economic sector.

Though the PM himself is keen to reshuffle the portfolios of some of the ministers and merge some of the ministries, he is unlikely to succumb to thepressure.

He may also have to induct some of the ministers as well whenever the exercise is undertaken. Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar is waiting for his reinduction in the ministry while the Biju Janata Dal nominee is also aspiring to be in the government as Naveen Patnaik went to Bhubaneshwar as Chief Minister.

There is also a talk for bringing in Sushma Swaraj in the Cabinet. The Prime Minister is not averse to her induction either now. The Swadeshi lobby wants that Kumaramanglam be shifted from power to Petro-Chemicals and fertilizers and Arun Jaitley out from the Disinvestment portfolio.