On its seventeenth birth anniversary yesterday, the BJP violated one of its best held traditions. Its two day national executive meeting concluded without passing any resolution. The reason: party leaders did not want rival parties to know its likely moves.
The executive deferred a final decision on its strategy amid the current political imbroglio till the BJP's parliamentary party meeting, scheduled for April 11.
The failure to pass a resolution was not well taken by some senior BJP leaders, who described this as a historical blunder and the meeting as one of missed opportunities.
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Senior BJP leaders, however, wanted to keep open the BJP's options of staking a claim and forming its own government, in case the 14-party United Front government fell on April 11 and President SD Sharma explored the possibilities of forming an alternate government.
They hold that Sharma may follow the book and again invite the BJP to form a government, by virtue of it being the single largest party in the Lok Sabha. After seeing the mood of the UF's regional allies after April 11, the BJP would see if it can muster a majority, a party office bearer said. Only then will the BJP stake claim, he added.
The decision not to pass a resolution was taken at a meeting of senior BJP leaders at the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Among those who attended the meeting were BJP President LK Advani and the party's five general secretaries.
Advani and one general secretary were reportedly of the view that the executive should pass a political resolution with a focus on a mid-term poll, the idea that he proposed during his inaugural address to the executive meeting on Saturday.
However, Vajpayee, supported by another general secretary, wanted the resolution to send the image that the BJP would definitely try to form its own government. They argued that the BJP, by indicating its reluctance to form an alternative government, should not close the option of some of the United Front partners supporting the party after April 11.
Another general secretary suggested that the party should give no signal and try to adopt a wait and watch policy till April 11. This was finally adopted.
Although party leaders have decided to oppose the Deve Gowda government's confidence vote, they did not spell this out through a formal resolution, in order to create confusion in rival camps. Party spokesperson Sushma Swaraj said our silence will create more confusion between the Congress and the UF, where as our happiness will unite them.
The party rejected the theory of abstaining during the time of voting for the fear of losing public sympathy, which it gained at the time of Vajpayee's resignation when he failed to muster numbers in support of his 13-day government.
The BJP would play the role of a principled opposition party, Swaraj asserted but said that a final decision would be taken only on April 11. The party would like to assess the situation which is changing on a day to day basis she said, adding we cannot respond as their strategy is not dependable.
She admitted that the party did not wish to become the laughing stock in such a delicate situation. The situation is not created by us and we can only respond. What happens if the Congress and the UF reach some understanding before the government's proposed confidence vote, she asked.
The party's decision not to pass a resolution was inspired by its consideration that it should not criticise the UF whose constituents may support the BJP, a party leader said. However, the party forgot that it had criticised the UF's ten-month rule which also included the misrule in Uttar Pradesh under Governor Romesh Bhandari and in Bihar under Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.
The party also forgot the recent massacre of Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir valley and of the Dalits in UP. The executive could at least criticise the Indo-Bangladesh water treaty which Vajpayee criticised at his recent rally in Calcutta, he said.
On the party's failure to criticise the Congress, he said that some BJP leaders were also hoping that the Congress would split and one of the sections would support the BJP. However, BJP leaders forgot that the party had criticised the Congress's five-year rule under former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao as an era of corruption involving Rs 50, 000 crore. The party had issued a public chargesheet against the Congress government, he pointed out.