Jana Krishnamurthi ratified BJP chief

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 24. The BJP national executive committee today showed the seriousness of its concern at the allegations against its former president, Mr. Bangaru Laxman, virtually closing the doors on his possible return to his post.

Mr. Jana Krishnamurthi's position as president was unanimously ratified by the national executive this morning after the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, moved a resolution on this. Later, it was officially announced that Mr. Krishnamurthi would continue as president for the remaining period.

Although the party is still claiming that Mr. Laxman (who stayed away from the executive committee) is innocent, and that he had taken the money (as exposed by the Tehelka tapes) for party funds, the bottomline is that it has almost acknowledged that he has become a huge embarrassment.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Krishnamurthi referred to the painful situation in which Mr. Laxman had to submit his resignation. But he tried to turn this round to suggest that this was part of an Opposition conspiracy ``to create a situation of doubt about the credibility of our leadership.'' Rather gallantly, Mr. Krishnamurthi said the party looked forward to Mr. Laxman's name being cleared sooner rather than later.

He did not evade the fact that the party was indeed facing a problem as a result of the defence dealings scandal, but he likened it to a ship sailing smoothly suddenly finding itself in the midst of a storm. Just as Tenzing Norgay found the last 100 metres to the top of Mount Everest the most difficult, the BJP was facing difficulties in the last leg of its journey to power, having already emerged as the biggest political party.

But Mr. Krishnamurthi reserved the main attack for the Congress, accusing it of nursing an ``unbridled ambition for power,'' of having an ``irresponsible leadership'' and a ``hysterical'' party president, and of ``flouting democratic norms with impunity''. The main Opposition party was not playing the role demanded of it in a democracy, he said adding its demand that the Government must go was ``fascist''.

As for the communists, Mr. Krishnamurthi wished to see them out of power in both West Bengal and Kerala. This, he said was the ``main objective of the party'', provoking some to conclude that perhaps the BJP had arrived at a ``deal'' with the Congress in Kerala.

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