Candid Sushma defends hard-hitting speech at BJP top meet

Sushma was the only BJP executive to have spoken vociferously on issues like Government’s handling of Kashmir affairs and economic policies, at its closed-door executive committee meeting on Saturday. The impact of her speech could be gauged by the manner in which almost all senior leaders including Human Resource Minister M M Joshi and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat congratulated her for "reflecting workers’ sentiments". Even Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who was briefed about discussion in the executive meet by Murli Manohar Joshi, told media persons yesterday that he would talk to Swaraj.

But it hardly made any impact on political and economic resolution passed by the party during past two days, except that almost every speaker including Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and BJP’s economic affairs cell in-charge Jagdish Shettigar, chanted swadeshi mantra. Though in a different context than what BJP hardliners wanted.

The party had to change the language of its economic resolution after Swaraj’s hard-hitting speech and a paragraph in which party had extended full support to Government’s economic policies, had to be dropped, claim some BJP leaders. But, none of the speakers had demanded any change in political resolution. Even Sinha had to say that World Bank and International Monetary Fund would not be allowed to interfere in India’s internal matters and that fresh round of WTO negotiations could not start without India’s cooperation.

Swaraj claims, she wanted to speak only in presence of the Prime Minister and Home Minister but could not do so as they trooped in only at the fag end of the national executive on Saturday. "I only wanted to know whether the deviation in BJP’s earlier policies was because the party had realised that only the new policy being pursued by the Government was right or whether there was some compulsion to change the course", she says. If earlier policy was incorrect, the party should be candid enough to admit that publicly, she adds.

Swaraj feels that supporting Government policies does not mean lending it a helping hand as it deprives the Government from citing internal pressures, while negotiating at international fora. After all, India has so far refrained from signing Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) citing lack of consensus among political parties. France too refused entry to McDonalds because of strong opposition from French public, she claims.

She does not want to reveal what exactly did she say at the national executive. "I forgot everything as soon as I came out of the meeting", she says adding her speech was made on party forum and was not for public consumption. "If I had to say anything publicly, I would not have waited so long", Swaraj says. I only conveyed my feelings and conviction to party leaders, she adds.

She also denies that her anger was not at being not accommodated in the Union Cabinet and that her speech might have cost her a ministerial berth in the reshuffle being planned by the Prime Minister. "If I had to become a minister, I would not have refused to contest from South Delhi and opted for an unfamiliar terrain like Bellary.

After her speech here, Swaraj’s popularity graph has suddenly soared so much that a huge crowd of party workers follows her wherever she goes, seeking her autograph and a photograph with her and she makes it a point to oblige everyone.

By endoring the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) agenda Swaraj might have endeared the Sangh Parivar bosses, who recommended her name for BJP’s presidentship while Vajpayee wanted M Venkaiah Naidu. She might also be wanting to position herself after Vajpayee and Advani with Sangh’s support, BJP leaders feel.