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Advani under pressure from RSS on hijack issue

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Union Home Minister L K Advani's contention that the government's release of the three jailed terrorists in exchange for the 156 Indian hostages had not damaged its image but only that of his party, was made because of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's pressure on him, top party sources indicated today.

"Only yesterday Advaniji denied that he had offered to put in his resignation following his disenchantment with the government's release of the three terrorists. Then he went on record as saying that the terrorists' release will not harm the government but the BJP and this has been made under pressure from the hardliners in the RSS," highly-placed sources told rediff.com.

They said the "hawks" in the RSS were initially glad that during the meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Security Affairs, when the hostage crisis was still on, Advani had openly voiced his dissent that the terrorists' release would incalculably harm the country. But Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee later persuaded the Union home minister to endorse the government's statements that the decision to release the three terrorists had been unanimously taken by the ruling leadership.

According to the sources, Advani's volte-face, when he endorsed the government claim that the terrorists' release was a unanimous decision, has angered the RSS. Its chief Professor Rajinder Singh told the Union home minister that he should not have "bailed out'' the government for an act which was "unpardonable." The RSS chief is learnt to have told Advani that "believers in the RSS philosophy can only go to a limited extent to rescue the government on sensitive issues on which it has bungled." Following this, the Union home minister made the assertion that the BJP, rather than the government, had been damaged by the release of the three terrorists.

It is understood that Advani has been told by the RSS leadership that while it is willing to go some distance with the Vajpayee government on other sensitive issues, it will "simply not compromise " on matters relating to national security. The sources pointed out that the Union home minister has been asked to take a tough stance on national security issues.

Interestingly, the sources ridiculed reported moves in the ministry of external affairs to have ''better relations'' with the Taleban regime in Afghanistan. "There is no question of the Vajpayee government recognising the Taleban in Afghanistan," the sources asserted, adding that the radical Afghan regime's "omissions and commissions and its track-record ever since it assumed power had convinced India that it was up to no good."

Advani's assertion that the terrorists' release would impair the BJP's image has already triggered disquiet among the supporters of Vajpayee. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh numbers among these. According to senior party officials, Singh is understood to have told the prime minister that the government has just overcome a tricky situation in the wake of the hijack drama and the home minister's statement would open a Pandora's box. Singh is learnt to have complained that Advani's statement was likely to trigger dissent among the ruling coalition partners at the Centre while giving a handle to the opposition.

The outcome of the hostage crisis and Advani's subsequent stance is bound to rekindle the embers of a Vajpayee-Advani face-off which had commenced in the previous National Democratic Alliance government itself, the BJP sources pointed out. They said while the BJP leaders were doing their utmost to ensure the durability of the ruling coalition, the now-on now-off problems between the two stalwarts had serious implications for its long-term survival.

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