In yet another dramatic turn of events,the crisis in the BJP precipitated by veteran leader L K Advani quitting all party posts was resolved Tuesday as swiftly as it had erupted,with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat brokering a truce between Advani and the BJP leadership of Rajnath Singh. While Advani withdrew his resignation,Singh promised to properly address issues flagged by Advani about the functioning of the BJP. At a hurriedly-called press conference at Advanis residence Tuesday evening,Singh announced that Advani had agreed to withdraw his resignation on the advice of the RSS chief. I will personally address whatever complaints Advaniji has, the BJP president said,with Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari by his side. Earlier in the day,senior party leaders M M Joshi,Jaswant Singh,Uma Bharti,Venkaiah Naidu,Ram Lal,Gopinath Munde,Ravi Shankar Prasad and Kalraj Mishra,among others,called on Advani to persuade him to change his mind. The RSS also negotiated with Advani,with Sangh Parivar ideologue S Gurumurthy and former BJP president Nitin Gadkari remaining active through the day at Advanis residence. They were learnt to have played a crucial role in getting Advani to speak to Bhagwat over the phone,which led to the truce. Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha,Sushma Swaraj,also lent her weight to nudge the party leadership to call off the public stand-off to avoid hurting the party. However,the peace appeared fraught with tension as rival factions continued to claim that the other side had suffered a setback. On the face of it,the press statement released by Rajnath Singh indicated the party establishment had been forced to discuss Advanis concerns. On behalf of the party,Rajnath Singh assured Advani that his concerns about the functioning of the party would be properly addressed and the president will discuss the modalities of addressing these issues with Advani, the statement said. The assurance that the functioning of the party would be discussed is significant because the BJP parliamentary board which met under the chairmanship of Singh on Monday did not make this commitment while asserting that Advanis resignation had been rejected. In his resignation letter,Advani had questioned Singhs way of handling the party,expressed displeasure at its current functioning,and complained that most leaders were concerned just with their personal agendas. The anti-Advani camp had confirmed on Monday that the veterans displeasure was not limited to the one issue of Modis elevation as election campaign committee chief. The assurance,one Advani supporter claimed,binds Singh to make visible changes to the way the party functions to show the RSS chief that he had delivered on his assurance. Because the RSS chief has personally brokered the truce,it is now almost binding on Singh to address all grievances Advani has,and to get him on board on all major decisions in the future,including the partys prime ministerial candidate. This could indicate a setback for the Modi camp which had assumed that his projection as the campaign committee chief was virtually an endorsement of his candidature for PM. But the rival camp aligned to the Modi-Rajnath axis claimed that the RSSs involvement was merely a face-saver for the veteran to climb down from his maximalist position. It also highlighted how Singhs decision to hand over the reins of the 2014 campaign to Modi has not been challenged and will stay. It was Advani who resigned. It is he who had to take back the resignation. What has he gained? asked one leader,claiming that the RSS chief had not given any assurance to Advani. In fact,earlier in the day,Singh asserted that the decision to appoint Modi as the campaign committee chief was final. When the party takes a decision,nothing can alter it. Moreover the decision is not being challenged by anyone,so why even think of altering it? To begin with,there is no one questioning the decision, he told reporters in Banswara where he went to attend the 473rd birth anniversary celebrations of Maharana Pratap. On his return to Delhi,Singh drove straight to Advanis residence to announce that the crisis had blown over. The fragility of the truce,party sources said,will be tested every time Advani makes a demand or a suggestion on organisational matters and how Singh responds.
