The Hindu : BJP workers feel neglected: Laxman

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 02, 2002

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National

BJP workers feel neglected: Laxman

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM OCT. 1. "A communication gap is visible between the workers and the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party during the last three to four years and sustained efforts are needed to bridge it,'' the party's former president, Bangaru Laxman, said here on Tuesday.

In a chat with The Hindu, he said: "The workers don't feel that they are part and parcel of the party's system or its programmes. They feel that they are neglected and are therefore discontented. This is one of the main reasons for the party's defeat in the last four elections (to the State Assemblies).''

However, he felt that neglecting party workers was not a deliberate act on the part of leaders. The party was running the Government and the leaders could not spare much time to the workers. They had their own obligations and were facing pressures, which was natural with those in power, Mr. Laxman said. Unless a sense of participation was created in the minds of the workers, it was not possible for the party to do well in the coming elections, he said.

While welcoming the exercise started by the present president of the party, M. Venkaiah Naidu, in holding zonal conferences of the party and interaction with presidents of district units, the former BJP chief wanted him to go down to the mandal (taluk) and village levels also.

He recalled his enunciation of the programme of political and social expansion of the party at its Nagpur conference as the then party president. He wanted it to be pursued more vigirously. The ongoing Gram Chalo Andolan should cover the dalitwadas too.Mr. Laxman, who quit as the party's president after the Tehelka episode, said that he was not being ignored by the party and would be active again after the committee inquiring into the allegations submitted its report in January 2003.

Asked for his comment on why he was asked to step down and Mr. Naidu was allowed to continue even after a land grabbing scam came to light against the latter, Mr. Laxman said he had quit on his own and not under pressure while in the case of Mr. Naidu, the party leadership felt that the allegations against him were not serious. "A small issue had been blown out of proportion in the case of Mr. Naidu, and even this is not being discussed now.''

He, however, said that some people might have been worried over the response his call for social change in the party had received and also the fact that the envoys of 35 countries had called on him, that ambassadors of all the Gulf countries met him in a group and that he became the first president of a political party to be invited by the Foreign Journalists Association to address their meeting, which had prompted them to launch a false allegation against him. "They may not be from my party since none in the BJP will do such things'' .

Asked for his comments on the performance of the Telugu Desam Government, Mr. Laxman said that there was a need "to fill the gap between magic and reality''.

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