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Sangh Parivar is aghast as Vajpayee branches out

George Iype in New Delhi

As the proposed Insurance Regulatory Authority Bill continues to sour relations between the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and the Sangh Parivar, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is preparing for a four-day brainstorming session to debate the efficacy of a coalition government vis-à-vis Hindutva.

The RSS top brass's efforts to force Prime Minister Vajpayee steer his nearly nine-month-old Bharatiya Janata Party-led government through the Hindutva path has virtually failed.

While the prime minister has ignored the RSS leadership's advice on a host of issues, leading to a near break-down in relations between the two, BJP leaders anticipate that the introspection camp (chintan shibir) convened by the RSS from December 9 at Nagpur will be crucial for the government's continuity.

BJP president Shashikant 'Kushabhau' Thakre and party general secretaries K N Govindacharya and Narendra Modi will attend the camp, which will discuss policy issues and finalise strategies for improving the performance of the Vajpayee government.

BJP leaders admit that the prime minister now faces a trial of strength with his own party and the Sangh Parvivar rather than with his disparate coalition partners, as the government goes ahead with the decision to introduce the controversial insurance bill this week in Parliament.

Though the prime minister managed to rein in his allies after the BJP's drubbing in the assembly poll last month, the Sangh Parivar's decision to virtually dare him on key policy issues has placed the government on a sticky wicket.

"Vajpayeeji is now facing more tremors from within the BJP and RSS rather than the alliance partners. On the one side is the RSS which fears that it is losing its grip on the government. On the other side is a strong section of the BJP leaders who want the prime minister to follow the RSS dictates," a BJP official told Rediff On The NeT.

The yawning schism between the party leadership and Vajpayee reached a climax when Thakre told a weekly newsmagazine on Sunday that the government did not consult the party on opening up the insurance sector.

Stating that the BJP was opposed to foreign equity participation in the insurance sector from the very beginning, the BJP chief said the party was given absolutely no indication that the insurance bill was in the offing.

"Till yesterday we were saying something and now our government is doing just the opposite. Those who are in the government may have their own compulsions. But when they are doing something which goes against a specific recommendation of the party, it is always prudent to consult the party before doing it," Thakre claimed.

Many in the party believe Thakre's decision to come out openly against the government on the insurance issue has been compelled by the objections from the RSS, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch against Vajpayee's style of functioning.

The Sangh Parivar is dissatisfied with the coalition government's abject failure to protect the Hindutva causes that helped the BJP to win power. They include scrapping of Article 370, enactment of a uniform civil code and construction of a Ram temple at the Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya.

Pressurised by coalition politics, Vajpayee has so far either kept in abeyance or abandoned these demands that were incorporated in the BJP's election manifesto as the party's key pledges.

The main grouse from the Sangh's leading lights is that the prime minister never consults them on crucial governmental decisions like Cabinet expansion and allowing foreign equity participation in insurance.

On Saturday, Vajpayee inducted three of his friends in the Cabinet -- Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan and Jagmohan -- without consulting RSS chief Rajendra Singh and senior leader K S Sudershan, who is the official link between the Vajpayee government and the RSS.

On insurance, the Cabinet had decided -- without informing the party leadership -- to have a cap of 26 per cent for foreign companies and another 14 per cent for non-resident Indians, foreign institutional investors and overseas commercial bodies.

While liberals within the BJP point out that the mini Cabinet expansion was an attempt by the prime minister to assert himself after the poll debacle, RSS leaders charge that the communication gap between the government and Sangh Parivar is increasing day by day.

"The prime minister and the BJP leadership in consultation with the RSS should now try to launch a damage control exercise to redeem the government's image. But that seems to be not happening," an RSS official said.

"Our assessment is that the prime minister is not being advised by the RSS and BJP leadership, but by a handful of his own chosen men," the RSS official told Rediff On The NeT.

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