To appreciate the BJP-RSS crisis I am compelled to go first person. Indira Gandhi cravenly descended to dictatorship and the Emergency to avoid losing ...
To appreciate the BJP-RSS crisis I am compelled to go first person. Indira Gandhi cravenly descended to dictatorship and the Emergency to avoid losing office. Thereby, she united diverse elements opposed to the Congress. Even Nanaji Deshmukh from the RSS and Delhi's Shahi Imam embraced each other.
Because of Indira and Jayaprakash Narain, the Janata Party was born. Along with L.K. Advani, Sikander Bakht, Ram Dhan and Surendra Mohan, I became its only non-politician general secretary. This was in recognition perhaps of my consistent anti-Congress role as a journalist much before the Emergency.
But soon, intrigue by party colleagues and my rejection of Morarji Desai's offer to become his secretary marginalised me. I went back to journalism, keeping alive my contacts with politicians.
In the course of time, I raised the dual membership issue that eventually split the Janata Party. As a columnist for Blitz, I exposed an RSS-sworn affidavit stating it was a political organisation. The RSS sought to avoid the heavy tax imposed on it as a registered society. Then Madhu Limaye pushed the issue further. It blew up. It became an excuse for splitting the party. Subsequently, I became a founder-general secretary of Charan Singh's breakaway Lok Dal. In the ensuing general elections, I contested from New Delhi and lost against Janata's Vajpayee and C.M. Stephen of Congress.
After the election, Charan Singh and Raj Narain split. I joined neither. Those in Janata who overlooked dual membership also split. Thus the BJP was born. Vajpayee and Advani invited me to join the BJP. I foolishly accepted. I thought a new Janata without internal squabbles would emerge. Within a few years, I was expelled from the national executive for alleged indiscipline. I resigned from the BJP. My differences arose from its opposition to the Akalis and its support to the Shiv Sena.
Now, the BJP itself is haunted by dual membership. The BJP and RSS have incompatible views on the economy and Hindutva. Tactics based on dishonesty cannot bridge these honest differences. By remaining united, both are declining. Minus RSS, the BJP could become the focal point of a revived Janata party, whatever its name. Learning from experience, the new party could thrive on federalism and democratic discipline.
Younger BJP leaders like Jaitley, Mahajan, Swaraj, Bharati, Rajnath and Yashwant should dispassionately appraise their political future in an RSS-controlled BJP. If they have self-respect they will split from the rss. India desperately needs a genuine, coherent, national alternative.
(Puri can be reached at rajinderpuri2000@yahoo.com)