Vajpayee refuses to let Modi issue die

Gujarat will be discussed in Mumbai: Former PM

The crisis in the Sangh parivar caused by the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) defeat in the general elections deepened on Thursday.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee appeared to have put his foot down on the issue of discussing Gujarat and Chief Minister Narendra Modi's leadership at the three-day Mumbai meeting of the party national executive, starting next week.

Speaking in Manali, Vajpayee said contrary to whatever party chief M Venkaiah Naidu might have said, "Gujarat will be discussed in Mumbai". "We are not afraid to discuss anything," he added.

Without taking Modi's name or the post-Godhra violence, Vajpayee, on a holiday here, told a meeting of the local people that the party "will discuss Gujarat with an open mind."

He also told a closed-door meeting of the state BJP executive earlier that the party lost in the elections because of the anger of the people against some of its allies.

Vajpayee's statement widened the faul-tline between the BJP and the RSS and the VHP, after the latter came out in support of Modi's role during the Gujarat riots.

According to party sources, while Vajpayee' stand on Gujarat has not surprised anyone, his insistence on precipitate action like discussing Modi in the Mumbai meeting has put the party and Vajpayee himself in a spot.

"When it comes to Hindutva, Vajpayee is as liberal as anyone else, yet he has had to accommodate the RSS. The loss in the general elections 2004 is making him review his past decisions, many of which had been taken under pressure from the Sangh," said a senior leader.

"Vajpayee, by reiterating his position, has made the discussion on Modi a prestige issue, if the party does not discuss it, then it will be a loss of face for him," he said.

All eyes, therefore, are focused on former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, who will have to don the mantle of mediator between Vajpayee and the Sangh Parivar. It will be up to him, according to party sources, to evolve a method by which Vajpayee can save face and the Sangh be mollified.

RSS leader Madan Das Devi is expected to meet Vajpayee once the former Priem Minister returns to Delhi. But Advani is the pointsman who will be expected to bear the burden of smoothening relations between Vajpayee and the Sangh.

"The strange thing is that the RSS and the VHP also have no love lost for Modi either who is said to be arrogant and has a dictatorial side," said a senior leader.

"What has miffed the RSS is the linking of Hindutva with the failure of Modi's leadership, the RSS will never accept the discrediting of Hindutva," he added.

As the BJP goes in for its first national executive after the election defeat, the expectedly volatile meeting will be positively boiling over with tension. Strangely, it will be the perceived hawk Advani who will have to play the dover of peace in between Vajpayee and the Sangh Parivar.

With neither willing to give an inch, the Mumbai meeting may well turn out be the crucible as far as the BJP is concerned.

Vajpayee's remarks contradict Naidu's statement on Monday that "there is no proposal to change the leadership of the BJP government in Gujarat, nor will this issue be on the agenda at the meeting of the national executive in mumbai."

Naidu, after a meeting of senior party leaders that discussed Vajpayee's interview to a television channel in Manali on Sunday, had said the affairs of the party in Gujarat will be discussed separately.