RSS intervenes in spat over Modi's fate

The Hindu United Family of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) was struggling to come out from the throes of a domestic dispute after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's remark that Narendra Modi's continuance as chief minister after the Gujarat riots was one of the reasons for the defeat of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the elections.

The crisis continued for the fourth day with RSS leader Madandas Devi meeting former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani to discuss the repercussions of Vajpayee's statement. At the hour-long meeting, Devi urged Advani that nothing hasty should be done in deciding Modi's fate, sources said.

The RSS line on the issue is to delink the Gujarat riots with the dissidence against Modi within the state unit. "The RSS line is clear. They say: remove Modi only because party legislators do not support him, not because he has become the scapegoat for the Gujarat riots," said a senior leader.

The Gujarat "problem" would be reviewed, but discreetly, at the Mumbai national executive,  starting on June 22, he added. With Vajpayee going public and setting a timetable, the RSS feels that the BJP's hand will be forced sending out the wrong signal to its core Hindu vote bank.

The question then is why Vajpayee bared his heart. One reason could be that as a leader who is futuristic, Vajpayee decided to address another problem that is likely to crop up in the future"" that of Uttar Pradesh. It is clear that the BJP cannot go it alone in UP, it needs an ally.

In the current configuration of political forces in the state, it is only Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party that the BJP can come to a political understanding with.

Yadav has told the BJP on numerous occasions that an understanding with them cannot be envisaged unless they take action against Modi. UP is crucial to the BJP's political future. It could have been with this in mind that Vajpayee made his observations about Modi.

The three-day Mumbai meeting would not discuss Modi's ouster, party general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said. But consideration would be given to it "separately", he added.

According to sources, since the Mumbai meeting will be the first since the party's defeat in the 2004 general elections, sparks are expected to fly. "Mostly in previous meetings, we were in the government and generally there was alround praise of government policies. This time, it will be a discussion on why we lost, we are expecting some high voltage action," said a senior BJP leader.

Vajpayee will be addressing the executive only on the last day of the meeting. The choice of Mumbai as the venue has been settled keeping in mind the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

The political resolution of the meeting is expected to have a component called "future direction" (Aagami Path), which will be the outline of the path that the BJP will take as an opposition party.

This is not the first or the last spat between the BJP and the Sangh Parivar on the former's "blow hot, blow cold" on Hindutva issue. Whether it was this that brought the BJP to its electoral defeat will also be discussed at the national executive.

The RSS leader will also meet Vajpayee, when he returns from his vacation in Manali on June 19, Sangh sources said.

Devi's meeting with Advani comes in the backdrop of a sharp attack on Vajpayee's remarks blaming Gujarat's violence for the BJP's electoral debacle by RSS chief K Sudarshan who described such views as a "lie" being perpetrated to malign the Hindu society.