Kulkarni offers to quit, fuels row

On the eve of a meeting of Rashtriya Swaymsewak Sangh (RSS) prant pracharaks at Surat in Gujarat, a letter written by Sudheendra Kulkarni, a secretary in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to the party chief LK Advani has deepened the crisis in the BJP-RSS relationship.

The letter talks of recasting BJP-RSS ties and to curb the tendency of the Sangh to micro manage the BJP.

Kulkarni, who has been widely made the "fall guy" for Advani's pro-Jinnah comments in Karachi, offered to "step down from his post if senior leaders so desired, and serve the party as an ordinary worker".

The letter, which exhorts Advani to continue with what he started in Pakistan, insists that Advani "is on the right track". More significantly, Kulkarni has outlined what he feels is the right way forward for the party.

His prescription for resuscitating the BJP is the "recasting" of the BJP-RSS relationship. "The RSS should not be allowed to micro manage the BJP. Also their senior leaders should not openly comment on senior leaders in the BJP," the letter says in an apparent reference to K Sudarshan's comments on geriatrism in the BJP.

"The RSS must realise that the people of India do not like to see their leaders remote-controlled by an external entity," says the letter.

Kulkarni says the BJP should "distance itself from the more extreme elements in the VHP who have derailed the Hindutva movement and brought a bad name to the BJP".

The BJP must actively woo Muslims, the letter adds.

"The fear that this would displease our 'core voters' is misplaced. In any case is not it our duty to change the mindset of our core voters?" he asks. He advocates applying this in upcoming Bihar elections to see the results.

To end the organisational confusion in the party, Kulkarni asks that Advani look beyond the party to communicate with "the hearts and minds of people, like Jayprakash Narayan did 30 years ago."

BJP leader Arun Jaitley attributed Kulkarni's remarks to his personal view and denied that any such ideological reconfiguration was happening in the party. All eyes are now on Surat, to gauge what the Sangh has to say on the matter.