BJP uneasy about coordination committee
Rajesh Ramachandran in New Delhi
With various leaders speaking in different voices, the Bharatiya Janata Party has kept its options open on forming a co-ordination committee for itself and its allies.
"The biggest hurdle is not to win the vote of confidence, but to do tight rope walking," a top BJP official told Rediff On The NeT. "With all the allies pulling in different directions, the government is going to be a big circus."
The BJP would be happy not to have such a co-ordination committee. Party leaders would like to wait and watch its allies's reactions before forming a committee on the lines of the United Front's steering committee.
Key BJP strategist and party general secretary K N Govindacharya told Rediff On The NeT that, "as of now there will be no co-ordination committee. One leader from each of our allies met on Friday and discussed the draft document. The draft national agenda will be further discussed and approved on
Monday, March 9. That is why we have not decided on a co-ordination committee."
But this is not what former finance minister Jaswant Singh told Rediff On The NeT on Friday after the meeting with the allies concluded. Singh insisted that "a decision has been taken in principle to have a co-ordination committee. But it would not be on the lines of the UF steering committee."
When it was pointed out to him that Govindacharya had a different stand on the issue, Jaswant Singh said, "this is the fact of the matter," but declined to comment further.
More than a difference in opinion, this dichotomy is being interpreted as a tactical line pursued by the BJP to humour its allies till a government is in place.
Highly placed sources in the Sangh Parivar feel there is no need for a co-ordination committee. They feel that if all the BJP's allies have representation in the Union council of ministers there is no need for a co-ordination committee, which they feel will evolve into an extra-constitutional body.
The Parivar would like to project an appearance of unity and disclaim all allegations of inner contradictions. For the BJP and the RSS have the unenviable task of getting along with parties with ideologies and positions clearly contradicting its own. The RSS's view on this issue assumes considerable importance since the national agenda was formulated at the Sangh office in the capital.
Even former chief minister and BJP vice-president Madan Lal Khurana'a statement on Saturday that the constitution of the Union Cabinet is prospective prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's sole prerogative is seen as an attempt to deflect any pressure the allies mount on the party when the ministry is being formed.
BJP sources believe a policy of give and take is the only way to sustain the government, and hence the climbdown from its earlier Hindutva agenda. The Sangh Parivar has concentrated its energies on forming a government and would not like to do anything to upset the apple cart.
Elections '98
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