07-19-2005, 03:11 AM
More from Deccan.com 18 July 2005
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sudarshan might call for open revolt
By Siddhartha Reddy
These are strange days for Indiaâs politics. On the one hand is the ruling Congressâ inability to reshuffle the Cabinet, and on the other is the Sangh Parivarâs inability to refashion the party. Manmohan Singh is avoiding swearing in Sonia Gandhiâs wish-list and Advani is resisting caving in to Sudarshanâs directive.
It will be wrong to assume that the RSS wants Advaniâs head only because he praised Jinnah. After the NDA lost the Lok Sabha elections last year, the RSS told Vajpayee and Advani to retire and to ready a new team for the next elections. But they insisted on hanging around ignoring numerous hints from the RSS, and even Sudarshanâs public utterances in April this year.
Then the dramatic Jinnah strategy was evolved to help Advani metamorphose as a secular figure, gain NDA acceptability and thus pressurise the RSS to allow Advani to continue as president. So that, after the Bihar elections, he could become PM by toppling Manmohan Singh .
But the RSS is merciless in its determination to oust Advani. In the process it wants to scare the others who would dare to follow in his footsteps. As for Advani, instead of begging the RSS for an extension, he should chart a brave new path. If Advani courageously fights the RSS, then most BJP leaders will desert him, but the centrists outside the BJP will gravitate to support him. Many political activists want Indiaâs politics to be completely de-communalised. They perceive Advaniâs enmity with the RSS as an opportunity to build a national centrist political party to isolate the RSS, the Congress, the Communists, the RJD, the Muslim League etc.
Mahatma Gandhi always breathed âRamâ yet offered Jinnah prime ministership. The Mahatma was deeply religious yet secular. Advani doesnât yet possess the credibility to survive by chanting Jinnah and Ram in the same breath. But he must stay centrist, then only India will respond to him. As much as the Congress is owned by the Gandhi Dynasty, the BJP is owned by the RSS Parivar.
The Congress Dynasty is like a single family where Sonia Gandhi is the sole decision maker, so decisions are taken fast. In the RSS parivar the supreme five have to agree. Until they arrive at a consensus, decision making is impossible. Hence it takes time. The parivar functions like the Hindu joint family: consults everybody, hurts nobody, the accused is reprimanded, given time to repent, made to fall in line, else, cut to size.
The Congressâ decision-making is speedily surgical while that of the RSS is slow physiotherapy. Sonia Gandhi took 15 minutes to replace Sitaram Kesri. It has been 15 months, yet Sudarshan is stuck with Advani. Sonia picked Manmohan in a few hours. Sudarshan would take a fortnight to decide on Advaniâs replacement.
The BJP structure is like that of a modern electricity corporation. Financial holding, electricity generation and distribution are handled by three separate companies: RSS is the apex, BJP president is the CEO of the political wing, the mid-level leaders, the MPs and MLAs are from the BJP. Workers and their supervisors are from the RSS.
The RSS-BJP interaction is in-house, but other political parties and the media wrongly assume that the RSS is an outsider, interfering in the BJPâs affairs. Advaniâs isolation is so complete that he didnât find a single senior BJP leader to plead on his behalf. Instead he used George Fernandes to ask Sudarshan to allow Advani to continue.
The Surat conclave was unanimous that Advani must quit. Sudarshan sent his next-in-command Mohan Bhagwat to deliver the directive. Advani requested him not to make the directive public and said that he would resign on his own, soon. When informed of Advaniâs request, Sudarshan demonstrated tremendous statesmanship, ensuring that the RSS directive to Advani isnât disclosed. Having obtained precious time, Advani has a choice: to exit gracefully or to outwit the RSS.
Advani can successfully woo Karunanidhi, convincing him that the only way to win the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections is by becoming Prime Minister and appealing to Tamil pride. Thus after toppling the UPA, and with its government in control, Advani can resist RSS pressure. Only Karunanidhi can save Advani.
Advani is seeking time till the Bihar elections, expecting Nitish to deliver a victory. Then he can claim that people endorsed his presidency and the RSS has no right to remove him. Thus, he wonât retire until the Lok Sabha elections. But the UPA will extend Biharâs Presidentâs Rule in the Monsoon Session of Parliament and Bihar elections will be in February with that of Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal and Kerala. Advaniâs continuance when the RSS is against him, wonât help the BJP in Bihar. The RSS believes that a new president replacing Advani will energise the BJP in Bihar.
Electoral verdict cannot alter ideology. Hindu voice or secular attitude cannot be abandoned because of victory or defeat. So seeking Advaniâs continuance until Bihar elections is meaningless Advani could of course challenge RSSâ superiority over BJP, saying itâs time to determine who has the right to decide who will be president and till when. But the truth is, since the creation of the Jan Sangh in 1951, the president has always been appointed in consultation with the RSS.
But Sudarshan must also prove that this isnât an RSS versus Advani battle. On July 20, at RSSâ Nagpur meet, Sudarshan will speak again. Either he will forgive Advani or urge the BJP to overthrow him. Will Advaniâs repeated defiance make Sudarshan force his exit? Or will Advani dramatically abdicate?
The writer can be contacted at siddharthareddy@deccanmail.com
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sudarshan might call for open revolt
By Siddhartha Reddy
These are strange days for Indiaâs politics. On the one hand is the ruling Congressâ inability to reshuffle the Cabinet, and on the other is the Sangh Parivarâs inability to refashion the party. Manmohan Singh is avoiding swearing in Sonia Gandhiâs wish-list and Advani is resisting caving in to Sudarshanâs directive.
It will be wrong to assume that the RSS wants Advaniâs head only because he praised Jinnah. After the NDA lost the Lok Sabha elections last year, the RSS told Vajpayee and Advani to retire and to ready a new team for the next elections. But they insisted on hanging around ignoring numerous hints from the RSS, and even Sudarshanâs public utterances in April this year.
Then the dramatic Jinnah strategy was evolved to help Advani metamorphose as a secular figure, gain NDA acceptability and thus pressurise the RSS to allow Advani to continue as president. So that, after the Bihar elections, he could become PM by toppling Manmohan Singh .
But the RSS is merciless in its determination to oust Advani. In the process it wants to scare the others who would dare to follow in his footsteps. As for Advani, instead of begging the RSS for an extension, he should chart a brave new path. If Advani courageously fights the RSS, then most BJP leaders will desert him, but the centrists outside the BJP will gravitate to support him. Many political activists want Indiaâs politics to be completely de-communalised. They perceive Advaniâs enmity with the RSS as an opportunity to build a national centrist political party to isolate the RSS, the Congress, the Communists, the RJD, the Muslim League etc.
Mahatma Gandhi always breathed âRamâ yet offered Jinnah prime ministership. The Mahatma was deeply religious yet secular. Advani doesnât yet possess the credibility to survive by chanting Jinnah and Ram in the same breath. But he must stay centrist, then only India will respond to him. As much as the Congress is owned by the Gandhi Dynasty, the BJP is owned by the RSS Parivar.
The Congress Dynasty is like a single family where Sonia Gandhi is the sole decision maker, so decisions are taken fast. In the RSS parivar the supreme five have to agree. Until they arrive at a consensus, decision making is impossible. Hence it takes time. The parivar functions like the Hindu joint family: consults everybody, hurts nobody, the accused is reprimanded, given time to repent, made to fall in line, else, cut to size.
The Congressâ decision-making is speedily surgical while that of the RSS is slow physiotherapy. Sonia Gandhi took 15 minutes to replace Sitaram Kesri. It has been 15 months, yet Sudarshan is stuck with Advani. Sonia picked Manmohan in a few hours. Sudarshan would take a fortnight to decide on Advaniâs replacement.
The BJP structure is like that of a modern electricity corporation. Financial holding, electricity generation and distribution are handled by three separate companies: RSS is the apex, BJP president is the CEO of the political wing, the mid-level leaders, the MPs and MLAs are from the BJP. Workers and their supervisors are from the RSS.
The RSS-BJP interaction is in-house, but other political parties and the media wrongly assume that the RSS is an outsider, interfering in the BJPâs affairs. Advaniâs isolation is so complete that he didnât find a single senior BJP leader to plead on his behalf. Instead he used George Fernandes to ask Sudarshan to allow Advani to continue.
The Surat conclave was unanimous that Advani must quit. Sudarshan sent his next-in-command Mohan Bhagwat to deliver the directive. Advani requested him not to make the directive public and said that he would resign on his own, soon. When informed of Advaniâs request, Sudarshan demonstrated tremendous statesmanship, ensuring that the RSS directive to Advani isnât disclosed. Having obtained precious time, Advani has a choice: to exit gracefully or to outwit the RSS.
Advani can successfully woo Karunanidhi, convincing him that the only way to win the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections is by becoming Prime Minister and appealing to Tamil pride. Thus after toppling the UPA, and with its government in control, Advani can resist RSS pressure. Only Karunanidhi can save Advani.
Advani is seeking time till the Bihar elections, expecting Nitish to deliver a victory. Then he can claim that people endorsed his presidency and the RSS has no right to remove him. Thus, he wonât retire until the Lok Sabha elections. But the UPA will extend Biharâs Presidentâs Rule in the Monsoon Session of Parliament and Bihar elections will be in February with that of Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal and Kerala. Advaniâs continuance when the RSS is against him, wonât help the BJP in Bihar. The RSS believes that a new president replacing Advani will energise the BJP in Bihar.
Electoral verdict cannot alter ideology. Hindu voice or secular attitude cannot be abandoned because of victory or defeat. So seeking Advaniâs continuance until Bihar elections is meaningless Advani could of course challenge RSSâ superiority over BJP, saying itâs time to determine who has the right to decide who will be president and till when. But the truth is, since the creation of the Jan Sangh in 1951, the president has always been appointed in consultation with the RSS.
But Sudarshan must also prove that this isnât an RSS versus Advani battle. On July 20, at RSSâ Nagpur meet, Sudarshan will speak again. Either he will forgive Advani or urge the BJP to overthrow him. Will Advaniâs repeated defiance make Sudarshan force his exit? Or will Advani dramatically abdicate?
The writer can be contacted at siddharthareddy@deccanmail.com
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