The octogenarian RSS pracharak, Kushabhau Thakre took over as BJP president from Lal Krishna Advani after the latter joined the Atal Behari Vajpayee government as Home Minister last year. His tenure began on a stormy note after he expressed dissatisfaction with the Vajpayee government not consulting the party on important issues like the IRA Bill and the WTO negotiations. He also came under sharp criticism from various quarters for maintaining a studied silence over growing dissidence in the Uttar Pradesh unit of the party which led to BJP's tally of MPs from that state being reduced to half. He quietly presided over the party's debacle in Karnataka after a ``mismatched'' alliance with Janata Dal (United).Though he has voluntarily opted out of the race for a second term, he still has a significant role to play in the party, especially with an impending change of leadership in UP, the coming Assembly elections in Bihar and Orissa, and possibility of ``harsh'' economic decisions having to be taken by theVajpayee Government. He spoke to SHARAD GUPTA on some of these crucial issues. Excerpts.With your tenure coming to an end, how do you rate your performance?It is for others to rate my performance. How can I comment on myself?The party witnessed growing incidents of dissension in various state units like Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and now in UP. What are the reasons for this?The BJP has witnessed a phenomenal growth within the last one decade which required a matching growth in vyavastha (infrastructure), which we could not do. We would require training classes for workers to achieve this and that would require a lot of time. The BJP is a cadre-based party and the cadre needs constant guidance and training for which we did not have enough time. With one or the other election taking place every six months, it was just not possible.But the problems have not been at the level of the workers as much as that of the leaders.Even leaders are workers and our workersare not ambitious. In our party, one who goes against the party line stands isolated. The workers never support him.All the top BJP leaders, including the Prime Minister, have realised during the recent national executive meeting that the party's performance in UP declined because of infighting. What are you doing about that?It is not a major problem. These are factors which can be handled by us. We will manage that. A number of steps have to be taken. If you sow a seed and put ten buckets of water in it, will it grow faster? We have taken cognisance of the UP situation and it will be resolved. We are concerned about it and will solve it.What is the root cause for such dissidence in various states and what are you doing to stem the rot?After all, our workers too belong the society and what happens within society affects our workers as well. But see what happened in Delhi and MP, we swept the Parliamentary polls.Yes, but you lost both the Assembly elections.Winning andlosing is part of politics. Didn't we start from scratch at the Centre and managed to form a government here. The media overlooks the positive aspects of the party and concentrates only on negative aspects.The Prime Minister outlined two objectives of the BJP - to expand its base and to strengthen the National Democratic Alliance. Aren't the two things contradictory? If you want to expand your base, so do your allies want to do theirs.If we were not strong enough, no one would have come to us. BJP formed a solid core and, with allies, we have become stronger. The regional parties supporting us know that they cannot solve their problems on their own. That these problems can be solved by a government that is sensitive to their issues.The regional parties want a quid pro quo. If they have supported you in forming a government at the Centre, the BJP should support them in forming governments in their various states. If that is the case, how will you expand your base?We are not soconcerned about that. They too want to ensure that the Central government should last a full term. All of us are working in the larger interest of the country. We feel their necessity, they feel ours.BJP sunk its electoral prospects by aligning with the JD (U) in Karnataka after both squabbled over seat-sharing. Are we going to witness similar squabbling in Bihar and Orissa, especially after the JD (U) has already claimed that they will contest 190 out of 324 seats in Bihar?We will resolve this as the elections approach. I don't feel it necessary to join issue on this at the moment. I don't want to tell you right now how many seats we will contest.What are you doing to improve coordination between the party and the government? What happened to the proposal of forming a coordination committee headed by Venkaiah Naidu floated after the Bangalore national executive in January this year?There is no problem in coordination at the moment. We keep on exchanging views on a regular basisand therefore there is no need for any such committee.Does the BJP still have reservations about economic liberalisation? Do you hold same views on WTO negotiations and IRA Bill as you did earlier?We believe in economic liberalisation with calibration. It has to be done in phases and not at one go. The Government is doing just that so we have no problem.How do you view the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's opposition to the Pope's visit?See, nothing happened. VHP quietly took out its procession.Does that mean the government's success or the VHP's failure?It is the success of both the VHP and the government. There was a lot of disinformation being spread against the VHP. The quiet demonstration has taken the wind out of such disinformation campaigns.Is BJP against forced conversions?We have already clarified that it is not our job. There are other organisations to take care of these things.Will you request the Pope to appeal for stopping forcedconversions?I don't consider myself such a big leader as to advise the Pope. It's up to him what he does.Whom do you see as your possible successor?There are a number of qualified and experienced leaders in the BJP. The party will itself elect an able leader as its President through consensus. It is not such a big problem.
