Advani withdraws resignation

BJP resolution commends party president's pakistan visit, condemns Jinnah

The crisis that had gripped the BJP for the past four days finally ended on Friday evening, with party President L K Advani withdrawing his resignation. He had quit following an uproar over his remarks on Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

BJP Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, instrumental in formulating a please-all resolution, announced after the BJP parliamentary board meeting today that Advani had decided to stay on.

According to top sources within the party, Advani's resignation stemmed from his disappointment that none among the second-rung party leaders had sought to defend his remarks on Jinnah. "That is why he rejected the first resolution which asked him to continue as BJP president," said a top leader.

In the past four days, the pincer pressure of Advani and the RSS""which was upset with his co-opting of Jinnah""had sent the party second-rung into a tailspin.

The new resolution is carefully worded and refers to Advani's visit to Pakistan as historic. On his Jinnah comments, the resolution states that Advani only quoted Jinnah's speech to the Pakistan constituent assembly, and that "it was a reminder to the people of Pakistan what their founder wanted the country to be".

"The Pakistan state instead is theocratic and non-secular, and the BJP as a party finds the idea propagated by Jinnah that Hindus and Muslims are a separate nation totally repugnant," read the statement.

In what is clearly the influence of the RSS in the document, Jinnah has been roundly condemned as the progenitor of the two-nation theory.

"There can be no revisiting the reality that Jinnah led a communal campaign for a separate state," said the statement. According to top sources, besides former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Advani, the draft was sent to RSS chief KS Sudershan, who is in Jaipur attending a camp, for approval.

Advani's decision to withdraw his resignation has baffled many who see it as a climbdown by the loh purush (Iron man). Others, however, feel that he had little option.

"Advani's position as the leader of the Opposition would have become untenable had he not retained the presidentship. The criticism of leaders like Yashwant Sinha and Murli Manohar Joshi showed that his support base within the party had been affected given the RSS' aggressive posturing on the issue," said a top leader.

What the episode has clearly demonstrated is that the BJP's second-rung leadership is not yet ready to shoulder the responsibility of leading the party, and that the shadow of the RSS looms larger than life. Making peace with the RSS is the priority of the BJP now.