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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, Feb 2: The war within the Sangh Parivar is likely to intensify with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee using today’s coordination committee meeting to fire another warning at the hardliners to lay off his Government.
The routine pre-budget exercise was suddenly recast last night to give Vajpayee a weapon with which to silence his detractors in the Sangh. A joint statement issued after four hours of deliberations squarely blamed “certain elements perceived to be close to the BJP” for undermining the image and prestige of the Government.
It was as close as Vajpayee could get to rebuking the VHP, Bajrang Dal and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch without actually naming them. And by using the shelter of the coordination committee to do so, he drew on the support of his coalition partners to carry on his battle. Some like Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Lok Shakti leader R K Hegde are already on record blaming Sangh hardliners for not allowing the Vajpayee Government to function.
Thedecision to fight the Sangh through his multi-party alliance was taken last evening. Initially, today’s coordination committee meet was slated as pre-budget consultations, to be chaired by the convenor and Defence Minister George Fernandes in his room. The Prime Minister was not to attend and had planned to “just drop in for lunch” after the meeting.
But the ghastly murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines in Orissa and the obdurate insistence of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal to continue with their anti-Christian propoganda changed all this. Vajpayee called a war council at his residence late in the evening which was attended by Fernandes, Commerce Minister R K Hegde, Home Minister L K Advani and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh.
It was at this meeting that the agenda for today’s gathering was totally reworked. The venue was shifted to Race Course Road and it was decided that Vajpayee himself would chair the deliberations.
The meeting also finalised the draft of the joint statement releasedafter today’s meeting. Significantly, Vajpayee’s aides in the PMO prepared the statement, leaving no room for doubt that the decision to up the ante in the fratricidal war was a prime ministerial initiative.
At the same time, realising the need to present a united front to the hardliners, the leaders sought to buy peace with the dissenters in the alliance by clearing a partial rollback of the hike in food prices. Vajpayee launched the damage control exercise by communicating this decision to Telegu Desam chief Chandrababu Naidu over the telephone this morning. Naidu has been the most vocal critic of the price rise and yesterday his partymen had threatened to withdraw support to the Government on this issue.
Although Vajpayee did not talk to AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha directly, her representative at the coordination committee meeting, Law Minister Thambidurai, was in constant touch with her at the Vajpayee’s behest. Thambidurai, of course, hesitated to sign the joint statement without Jayalalitha’sclearance and the three-page document was faxed to her for approval from the Prime Minister’s residence.
Similarly, the Shiv Sena representative, Rajya Sabha MP Pritish Nandy, was held up and could not attend but according to BJP sources, he was on the line with those at the meeting over his mobile phone from Mumbai airport. He drove directly to the venue of the meeting and appended his signature to the statement on behalf of his party, the sources said.
Negtive uttarances
“Sometimes, negative utterances and positions by certain elements perceived to be close to the nucleus of our coalition, BJP, have also undermined the prestige of the Government. More than anything else, it is these public utterances and postures that have adversely affected the image of our Government and cast a shadow on its numerous undeniable achievements.”
