11-11-2009, 11:21 AM
Advani: Petulant Patriarch
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The current crisis in the party stems from Advaniâs now obvious determination to cling on to his post till his last breath, negating an August commitment to the RSS that he would step down in the month of October after installing a new generation of leaders in New Delhi. Soon after obtaining this reprieve, however, he used the good offices of the same Coomi Kapoor to convey that he would go only after the term of party president Rajnath Singh ended, so that he could have a hand in the selection of the new BJP president also.
In turn, pressures mounted for an early exit and rumours of a birthday resignation gained ground, much to his dismay. In retaliation, the coterie manipulated a crude threat to the party government in Karnataka, which was miraculously (sic) resolved to coincide with his birthday on 8 November.
But RSS had seen through the game and improvised a new strategy - to isolate Advani within the party and leave him high and dry like a beached whale. In pursuit of this objective, the Sarsanghachalak used a 6 November 2009 interview with AAJTAK news channel to declare unequivocally that the next BJP president would not be selected from the ranks of the four principal Advani acolytes, namely, Arun Jaitly, Sushma Swaraj, Ananth Kumar and M Venkaiah Naidu.
Many birds were killed with this single stone:
-Â Â Â Â Â BJP cadres and leaders nationwide got the message that Advani will have no say in the selection of the next party president
-Â Â Â Â Â BJP cadres and leaders got the message that Advani will have no say in the selection of the next Leader of the Opposition (which may be why he is now refusing to quit)
-Â Â Â Â Â The claims by these four persons, who leaked to the media in August 2009 that Shri Mohan Bhagwat had divided the leadership posts among them â Venkaiah Naidu (BJP president), Sushma Swaraj (LOP, Lok Sabha) Arun Jaitly (LOP, Rajya Sabha), Ananth Kumar (Deputy LoP, Lok Sabha) â were thus publicly repudiated by the Sarsanghachalak, a stern snub by any reckoning
-Â Â Â Â Â Both Advaniâs birthday celebrations and the carefully calibrated Karnataka crisis resolution turned tasteless in their collective mouths.
There can be no doubt that Advani struck back by asking media cronies to lash out at the Sarsanghachalak. But it remains to be seen how many media barons will permit their organisations to be used to settle the personal scores of a fading political diva, and in the process alienate the rising and still invisible suns in the BJP.
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The current crisis in the party stems from Advaniâs now obvious determination to cling on to his post till his last breath, negating an August commitment to the RSS that he would step down in the month of October after installing a new generation of leaders in New Delhi. Soon after obtaining this reprieve, however, he used the good offices of the same Coomi Kapoor to convey that he would go only after the term of party president Rajnath Singh ended, so that he could have a hand in the selection of the new BJP president also.
In turn, pressures mounted for an early exit and rumours of a birthday resignation gained ground, much to his dismay. In retaliation, the coterie manipulated a crude threat to the party government in Karnataka, which was miraculously (sic) resolved to coincide with his birthday on 8 November.
But RSS had seen through the game and improvised a new strategy - to isolate Advani within the party and leave him high and dry like a beached whale. In pursuit of this objective, the Sarsanghachalak used a 6 November 2009 interview with AAJTAK news channel to declare unequivocally that the next BJP president would not be selected from the ranks of the four principal Advani acolytes, namely, Arun Jaitly, Sushma Swaraj, Ananth Kumar and M Venkaiah Naidu.
Many birds were killed with this single stone:
-Â Â Â Â Â BJP cadres and leaders nationwide got the message that Advani will have no say in the selection of the next party president
-Â Â Â Â Â BJP cadres and leaders got the message that Advani will have no say in the selection of the next Leader of the Opposition (which may be why he is now refusing to quit)
-Â Â Â Â Â The claims by these four persons, who leaked to the media in August 2009 that Shri Mohan Bhagwat had divided the leadership posts among them â Venkaiah Naidu (BJP president), Sushma Swaraj (LOP, Lok Sabha) Arun Jaitly (LOP, Rajya Sabha), Ananth Kumar (Deputy LoP, Lok Sabha) â were thus publicly repudiated by the Sarsanghachalak, a stern snub by any reckoning
-Â Â Â Â Â Both Advaniâs birthday celebrations and the carefully calibrated Karnataka crisis resolution turned tasteless in their collective mouths.
There can be no doubt that Advani struck back by asking media cronies to lash out at the Sarsanghachalak. But it remains to be seen how many media barons will permit their organisations to be used to settle the personal scores of a fading political diva, and in the process alienate the rising and still invisible suns in the BJP.
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