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Journalism of Courage
In what appears like a replay of last summers events in the BJP when an angry Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had threatened to boycott the partys national executive meeting,veteran leader L K Advani is learnt to have gone into a sulk and skipped the meeting of the partys national office-bearers on Friday,the eve of the national executive conference in Goa.
In an apparent attempt at damage-control,party president Rajnath Singh claimed that Advani was unwell and it was he who had asked Advani to rest. Due to Advanijis ill-health,I told him not to attend the meeting today. He will reach Goa tomorrow, Singh told reporters.
But other leaders said that there was more to it than what meets the eye as Singh and Advani had not spoken to each other since the news became public.
In fact,Advani supporters said that his arrival in Goa on Saturday was still tentative and would depend on the doctors advice. Advani has never missed a party national executive and it would be unprecedented if he does not make it to the Goa meeting.
Last year,ahead of the national executive in Mumbai,Modi had demanded the party stop rehabilitating his bete noire and former general secretary Sanjay Joshi. This year,Advani is said to be campaigning against the party becoming fully dependent on just Modi.
While giving his consent to Singhs proposal to appoint Modi as the partys election campaign committee chief,Advani was learnt to have also insisted that a separate election management committee be formed.
Fearing a backlash from Modi supporters,who see this second proposal as an attempt to belittle Modi,the BJP president is learnt to have dumped it before reaching Goa on Friday. Singh was learnt to have discussed the proposals with RSS points-persons on Thursday.
With Advanis absence on Friday casting a shadow on the party meeting,Singh chaired the meeting of national office-bearers,state unit chiefs and state organisation secretaries and skipped talking about plans for the partys national campaign committee chief.
No,this was not mentioned, Singhs political adviser and party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said when asked if Singhs speech referred to Modis role in the campaign.
Sources present at the meeting said that barring one suggestion,leaders did not refer to projecting Modi at all. Even Modi did not intervene much during the discussion. He only made a brief point regarding tackling Naxalism when office-bearers discussed the issue.
One leader sought to suggest to the party president that the confusion over the leadership be resolved at the earliest and a clear message should go out after this executive, one leader said. Singh apparently gave a cryptic reply and said: I will do it soon at an appropriate time.
While no other leader raised this issue subsequently,party leaders took this as a hint that a clear message may be delivered by the end of this national executive meeting. Everything is progressing in the right direction. Hope a final message will emerge after this meeting, said another party leader,indicating that an announcement might come on Sunday,the last day.
However,a strong section believes that since the issue has created a major controversy,it may have to be discussed at the parliamentary board.
While Advani appeared to be fighting a lonely battle,the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha,Sushma Swaraj,was learnt to have suggested to Singh to get Advani on board before making any announcement.
Advani loyalist and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti is also skipping the national executive. Advani supporters Jaswant Singh,Shatrughan Sinha and B C Khanduri are also not expected to attend.
