Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee may find it hard to force a new liberal attitude in the BJP if the recommendation, made by the Jana Krishnamurthy report, of a nine-member advisory council to assist the party president is adopted by the party's national executive and council meetings in Chennai from December 27.
Many BJP leaders said Vajpayee had taken the party for a ride on many occasions beginning from the policy on insurance to building a huge Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. The latest provocation has been the Union Cabinet decision to allow reservations to the scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) in promotions too.
Before the party came to power at the Centre, it had said the insurance sector would not be opened for foreign participation and it had also promised to facilitate the construction of the VHP-proposed Ram temple at Ayodhya. The party had also opposed reservations for SCs and STs in promotion.
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By discarding its long-standing views, the government and the party have been sending wrong signals to the cadre, a senior BJP leader said.
Although party leaders have not said anything against these policy changes, they have been arguing that it will be difficult to make the party cadre accept these changes.
The Jana Krishnamurthy report has suggested the the advisory council be made statutory to enable it to function as policy making body.
The advisory council will take a comprehensive look at the party's long-standing views and review them to suit the new environment. It will also discuss the factors that necessitate changes to make them more acceptable to the party cadre.
A gist of the report has been circulated to the party's national executive members for their comments.
If adopted by the executive, it will be placed before the national council for ratification.
The advisory committee will interact with the government and act as coordinating agency between the government and the party on policy matters.
In addition to the advisory council, there will also be five general secretaries and other office bearers who will carry out various works for the party.
The advisors will look into such issues and any change in policy will be carried out only after it has recommended it.
The party president has been authorised to convene a special session of the national executive within 20 days to ratify the changed policies.