Opinion Keeping RSS in mind
It was RSS chief Mohan Bhagwats candid interview with Arnab Goswami which triggered Jaswant Singhs expulsion....
It was RSS chief Mohan Bhagwats candid interview with Arnab Goswami which triggered Jaswant Singhs expulsion. Bhagwat,apart from taking a dig or two at Advani,also snubbed Rajnath Singh by conceding that Rajnath would be stepping down as party president by the year-end. Rajnath had hoped that because of the disarray in the party he could swing another term as president,even though this is in violation of the party constitution. Bhagwats criticism of the BJPs inability to tackle factionalism struck a raw nerve. Rajnath was already insecure because Rajasthan opposition leader Vasundara Raje had defied his diktat to step down. The party president felt he needed to assert his authority and earn brownie points with the RSS. He saw in Jaswant Singh an ideal opportunity to demonstrate that he was no lame duck president.
The decision to expel Singh was ratified by the parliamentary board. The fact that not one of his colleagues came to Singhs defence,at least to suggest that natural justice demanded that he be given a show cause first,reflects Singhs unpopularity among his peers and the extent to which all senior BJP personnel are intimidated by the RSS. L.K. Advani,who had himself once got into hot water for his views on Jinnah,remained silent. Even before Singhs letter rebellion,Advani was cut up with him. On the day of the election results,a leading industrialist had flown to Delhi and met Advani to lobby on behalf of Singh for the post of leader of the opposition. This was a job Advani wanted for himself.
Cant change its mind now
By expelling Jaswant Singh,the BJP has lost an important position in the Lok Sabha. Just last month,the BJP had nominated Singh for the prestigious post of chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee. The PAC has the right to scrutinise the previous years accounts of all government departments and ministries. And many a financial scandal embarrassing to the government has emanated from PAC reports. The chairperson plays a key role in deciding which areas the committee should focus on. Since Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has already notified Singhs name,the BJP cannot now ask for a new chairperson.
Old associations
The BJP and the RSS may be pathologically anti-Jinnah,but his grandson,industrialist Nusli Wadia,is closer to the BJP than to the Congress. Wadia has old links with some key members of the sangh parivar,such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee,Nanaji Deshmukh and Jaswant Singh. The RSS,incidentally,has an old distrust of Singh. In 1998,on the night before Vajpayee was to swear in his new cabinet,then sarsanghchalak K.S. Sudarshan telephoned the PM and made sure that Singhs portfolio was changed from finance to external affairs.
Real power centre
On paper,the Congress Working Committee is the partys most powerful forum. But in reality,the committee meets very infrequently and important decisions are taken by the partys core group,which includes Sonia Gandhi,Ahmed Patel,Pranab Mukherjee,A.K. Antony and P. Chidambaram. There has been a slight change in the groups composition after the new government took over. Arjun Singh and Shivraj Patil were dropped and Chidambaram has been included. The fact that a CWC meeting on drought and price rise was called so belatedly last week shows its marginalisation. By this time,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and others in his government had already announced various drought relief measures.
Old order changeth
At last weeks chief ministers conference in Delhi,there were signs of a change of guard. Two chief ministers,M. Karunanidhi and Parkash Singh Badal,were represented by their sons,Deputy Chief Ministers M.K. Stalin and Sukhbir Badal. The third heir to a regional dynasty,Omar Abdullah,has already stepped into his fathers shoes as Jammu and Kashmir chief minister.
Two chief ministers were conspicuous by their absence. UP Chief Minister Mayawati came to Delhi on the day of the conference to meet the prime minister and discuss drought measures for the state. But she returned to Lucknow without attending the conference. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya did not show up. According to some reports,he was mourning the death of his beloved pet dog,for whom his daughter held a funeral. Actually,Bhattacharya was down with fever.
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