NEW DELHI: The DIN of charges and counter charges over the Ayodhya a crises has distracted public attention from an interesting development within the Bharatiya Janata Party the attempt by hard-liners led by BJP President Muru Manohar Joshi to emerge as the true champions of the proposed Ram temple at the expense of the moderates by L.K.Advani.
The increasing distance between the two senior most leaders of the BJP, Murli Manohar Joshi, who heads the organizational wing, and L.K.Advani, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has once again come to the fore with the Ayodhya dispute snowballing into a major constitutional crisis.
While on the one hand Advani and his camp have all along advocated that the crisis should not be allowed to spill over, Joshi and the hard-liners have found the opportunity to seize the initiative on Ayodhya.
Whether within Parliament or outside, Advani Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Kalyan Singh have repeatedly made it a point to reiterate their resolve to ensure that the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi structure is not damaged. On the other hand, in the Rajya Sabha and elsewhere, Joshi and his followers have barely hinted to this effect.
Rather than help Kalyan Singh face the crisis without worsening the situation, Joshi was more keen on ensuring that there was no letup in the VHPs belligerence,” said a party functionary. He pointed out that while Advani was struggling to forge a plan that would enable the State Government to wriggle out of its desperate situation, Joshi was at Ayodhya, busy egging on the kar sevaks and the VHP not to stop the construction,
Advani is keen that the BJP should not force the Centers hands. Neither does he want the party to be projected as an organization that has no regard for constitutional provisions. “He realizes that this is a double-edged sword… it can work both ways. If the BJP ignores constitutional provisions, there is precious little it can do if its political opponents abuse the law to score a point,” said a party source.
On the other hand, Joshi is of the firm view that political capital can be made out of the present crisis by striking a belligerent posture. It is the perception that differs: For Advani, by allowing the VHP and the Bajrang Dal to defy the court orders, the BJP will project itself asa party that has lost control over its secondary allies; Joshi believes that unless the BJP goes along with the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, it will be seen as reneging on its pledge to help build the temple. Yet, at the end of the day, Advani appears to have the upper hand. His help was sought to draft the Uttar Pradesh Governments submission to the Supreme Court recently, seeking the high courts help to adjudicate on the land dispute. It is also reported that the idea to send Vijaya Raje Scindie to Ayodhya was prompted by him. BJP insiders feel that while party discipline has helped keep a lid on the simmering dispute between the hard-liners and the moderates, a time may soon come when everything will be in the open, The official line, of course, is that there are no differences among the two leaders. “It is a creation of the Press,” is the prompt reply to any query.
Notwithstanding official unanimity, there does exist a divergence of views on crucial issues Advani does not want the BJP to be politically isolated, as that will hardly help the party’s stature as the national alternative to the Congress. Joshi does not see the virtue of being a part of the mainstream political process, And thereby hangs a tale,” said a party old-timer. Till the recent crisis erupted, the success of the Ayodhya campaign was solely attributed to L.K.Advani, whose Rath Yatraled the party to its unprecedented-and unexpected-electoral success in 1991. His successor, Murli Manohar Joshi in his eagerness to emerge as an equally, if not more, popular leader, embarked upon the Kanya kumari to Kashrpia Bhia Vajra which, for all purposes, was a dismal failure.
That was the beginning of the tussle for control over the party which described itself as the government in waiting” and is the main national Opposition. Joshi, not quite happy with being restricted to organizational matters, was keen on calling the shots in the party’s parliamentary policy. And his stand has all along been contrary to Advani that by adopting a policy of constructive cooperation towards the Narasimha Rao regime, the BJPs image has suffered at the grassroots level.
The conflict almost came in the open during the run up to the presidential election,” said a senior BJP leader. According to him, even as Advani was meeting the Prime Minister during the laters efforts to field a “consensus candidate,” Joshi was trying to convince his colleague otherwise. On one particular occasion, when Advani and Joshi met to discuss the issue, the talks ended on a sour note, Advani was told in unambiguous terms that by going along with the Prime Minister, he was harming the party’s cause. In the end, Joshis view prevailed, He was helped, no doubt, by the collapse of the consensus approach, Many party insiders saw this as a
setback for Advani and the moderate voice and the beginning of a strident anti -Government stand in Parliament.
The uneasy relationship between the two leaders was also on public view during the build up to the transfer of Tin Bigha to Bangladesh last month. Till the last minute Joshi kept on demanding that the Masjid part be “Cancelled,” while Advani suggested that it should be “renegotiated,” Significance was attached to the fact that Advani cancelled his plans to visit the area along with Joshi at the last minute. No less significant is Joshis entry into the Rajya Sabha. “He obviously wants for have a finger in both the parliamentary and the organizational pie. His status as an MP will afford him the chance to effectively negate any moderation that may be forthcoming from Advani and his group,” said a BJP MP.
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 7, 1992
