Hawala issue continues to divide BJP

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The hawala scam and its fallouthas fuelled the war of supremacy between party president Lal Kishinchand Advani and his predecessor Murli Manohar Joshi.

Shortly after Special Judge V B Gupta, hearing the hawala case, turned down Advani's application asking that the CBI chargesheet against him be rejected on the grounds that it was politically motivated, a whispering campaign began against the party president.

The campaign, which buzzed that party leaders should keep the BJP's overall interests in the forefront and that if their presence in the party ranks appeared injurious to the BJP's prospects in the general election they should resign, is said to have been orchestrated by Joshi's supporters.

Advani's supporters have, for their part, been busy countering the whispers, and saying that the leader's principled stance in resigning his Lok Sabha seat as soon as he was named in the scam has immensely enhanced the BJP's image.

The BJP's two-day executive meeting took stock of the situation in the wake of the hawala scandal and its implications for the party's poll strategy. It was in this context, incidentally, that Advani had proposed a 35-day rath yatra to popularise the BJP promise of ushering in a clean government if it assumes power at the Centre.

Joshi has been a dissident of sorts ever since he was denied a second term as party president. Since his claims were overlooked in Advani's favour, Joshi has thus been opposed to the incumbent, though he has never been open about his dissidence.

Advani's supporters, for their part, have argued that Joshi's term as party president had witnessed uncertainty and vacillation in party policy.

With Advani now implicated in the hawala scam, Joshi's supporters are demanding that their leader be reinstated as party chief. However, RSS supremo Professor Rajendra Singh is opposed to the idea of Joshi coming back as president, and has been backing Advani's continuance in office in no uncertain terms. Given that Singh wields considerable clout in the Sangh Parivar, his endorsement of Advani has put Joshi and his supporters at a distinct disadvantage.

However, Joshi's camp is still hopeful of selling its argument that Advani's quitting the president's post will help the BJP regain the clean image it had hoped to sell to the electorate in the general election.

In the event, the BJP is going ahead with plans for Advani's proposed rath yatra. A special chariot is being readied for the occasion, and the yatra which will begin from Kerala on March 9 is expected to reach New Delhi on April 14.

Ironically, Joshi and his supporters now find themselves in the position of having to support Advani's proposed pan-India trip, if only in the interests of maintaining a facade of unity within the party ranks.