COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Swamy declares war on BJP

Rajesh Ramachandran in New Delhi

Dr Subramanian Swamy's tempestuous association with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is over.

Dr Swamy will now sit in the Opposition and try to topple the Vajpayee government after he gets clearance from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalitha.

The Janata Party president says he will form a secular front soon. He has already had discussions with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet towards this end.

Dr Swamy says he plans to expose the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. "I want to bring together all those elements who are committed to fight the RSS," he told a crowded media conference on Wednesday.

His first salvo was against Home Minister Lal Kishinchand Advani. "The home minister whose business it is not to talk about the legal and electoral system, has forced the pace by proposing the old RSS dream of a new Presidential Constitution with a list system of elections. This proposal is barely different from what Adolf Hitler proposed to von Hindenburg in 1932 after being sworn in as deputy chancellor on a fractured mandate."

Dr Swamy alleged that the home ministry has decided to recommend the Bharat Ratna posthumously for RSS founder Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and his successor, M G Golwalkar. The JP leader claimed an RSS contingent would march down Rajpath during the next Republic Day parade.

He said he would remain in the AIADMK-led front in Tamil Nadu, but was compelled to sever his ties with the BJP formally since he was not included in the 14 member co-ordination committee.

Dr Swamy said he would convince Jayalalitha about toppling the Vajpayee government, but would not topple the BJP-led front at the Centre "unless I have express clearance from Ms Jayalalitha."

"Even if the government is brought down, there is no alternative," he said, "so my efforts would be directed at forming a new configuration of existing parties which is viable and stable."

Dr Swamy has ruled out inducting the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Telugu Desam Party from the proposed secular front, as the TDP had lent support to the BJP and the DMK is the AIADMK's primary adversary in Tamil Nadu.

He said he had Jayalalitha's "blessing" to charter his own course in national politics. "I have met the leaders of all important political parties. My goal is the emergence of a secular front in the current Lok Sabha. The BJP is incapable of running a coalition. It is a party which believes in hegemony and would wipe out all the allies," he added.

Dr Swamy began his political career with the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the earlier avatar of the BJP. When the Jan Sangh merged with the Janata Party, he veered away from his political parents and evolved into one of the BJP's fiercest critics after the party was formed in March 1980.

In a strange twist, the maverick politician -- who had attacked Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Advani over the years -- became a BJP ally just before the general election when it formed an electoral alliance with Jayalalitha. Dr Swamy, who filed many of the corruption cases against Jayalalitha, had mended fences with the mercurial Puratchi Thailavi (Revolutionary Leader) earlier. With her unexpected electoral success in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalitha wanted Dr Swamy to be made a Cabinet minister, but the BJP rejected the suggestion.

After a war of nerves over the issue, Jayalalitha finally consented to support the BJP effort to form a government, and Dr Swamy became a signatory to the national agenda for governance drawn up by the BJP and its allies. All the signatories, the BJP announced then, would be members of the co-ordination committee.

Last week, however, the BJP refused to make Dr Swamy a member of the committee on the ground that he had not voted for the Vajpayee government during the vote of confidence. All other leaders of the AIADMK's allies were made members of the committee.

The BJP, it appeared, had convinced Jayalalitha about the need to drop Dr Swamy from the committee. On Wednesday, Dr Swamy alleged that Jayalalitha was not informed about his exclusion from the committee when its convener Jaswant Singh met her in Madras on Saturday.

RELATED REPORT:
AIADMK's allies miffed with Jaya

EARLIER CHAT/INTERVIEWS:
'Advani, Joshi, Uma Bharti must resign'
'There is no question of my bringing down the Vajpayee government'
'The problems will arise if the BJP ignores the issues relating to Tamil Nadu'
''The BJP cannot say that their devotion to Ram is higher than the Constitution of India'

Tell us what you think of this report