NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party president, Murli Manohar Joshi is on the offensive within the party, as the intra-party tussle intensifies, with elections for the top posts around the comer. Joshi, who is aiming for a second term as BJP president, is making sure that all his detractors realize that it is him and not former BJP president, L.K. Advani, who calls the shots in the party. The BJP, which once boasted of Organizational discipline, has been trying to downplay the power struggle. But it came to the force once again with are port appearing in Panchjanya, against the secretary of the UP chief minister Kalyan Singh, bringing into the open the differences between Joshi and Singh. The relationship between the two men has been strained with Singh, unlike other BJP chief ministers, refusing to kowtow to the BJP president.

Joshi, embarrassed not only Singh but other senior members of the party when he defied the party consensus to visit Ayodhya during the kar sewa in July.

But Joshi not only visited Ayodhya but also addressed a meeting with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Ashok Singhal, Shukla  RSS pracharak, was later heard saying that Joshi was the “only courageous man in the party. The other leaders, he said obviously alluding to Vajpayee and Advani had taken refuge in the court Judgement because it was politically convenient.

Shukla went one step further when he wrote an article in the RSS weekly, commenting on the concept of Swadeshi as seen by the BJP. The article, believed to have been prompted by Joshi, was to counter criticism of Joshi’s economic policy within the party. Joshi had been accused of being too close to the Congress motto of self-reliance and defence of public sector undertakings. Shukla wrote that a certain section of the BJP was opposed to the concept of Swadeshi because they were hand in glove with the multinationals with reference to Govindacharya.

Many BJP leaders now want to know why Shukla, who as a pracharak is quite low in the RSS hierarchy, is wielding so much power. The article on the alleged CIA links of Kalyan Singh’s private secretary, which has caused a furore, has been written by a person close to Shukla.

There is also a feeling that the RSS should not be used as a punching bag for the BJP and senior RSS leaders have also expressed an unwillingness to be portrayed as either anti or pro Kalyan Singh or to be dragged into the tussle between Joshi and other BJP leaders.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 2, 1992