The Hindu : Uneasy truce in Sangh Parivar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 25, 2002

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Uneasy truce in Sangh Parivar

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI OCT. 24. An uneasy truce in the Sangh Parivar was the result of a high-level meeting at the Prime Minister's residence here today in which the top RSS Sarsanghchalak, K.S. Sudershan, played the umpire.

After a two-and-a-half hour meeting over dinner and discussions on a wide range of subjects, including Ayodhya, disinvestment, Jammu and Kashmir and terrorism, it was ``understood'' that the direct personal attacks on the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, coming from some of the leaders of Sangh organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, would cease. At least for now. This is what the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, suggested to reporters after the meeting.

``It is understood,'' Mr. Naidu said in response to a question whether the personal attacks on the Prime Minister from Sangh organisations would stop. It was decided to have regular interactions with the Sangh, he added. Mr. Naidu made it clear that the BJP leaders ``will be talking to all nationalist (read RSS affiliates which includes the VHP) organisations'' to sort out their differences. This also indicated that the RSS wanted the BJP to talk ``directly'' to the VHP and may have refused to intervene.

The meeting's aim was to ``understand each other's views'' and, more important, from the BJP's viewpoint, call a halt to the almost daily statements of harsh criticism against the party leadership coming from the VHP leaders which were affecting the credibility of the ruling party.

There were three representatives from each side — Mr. Vajpayee, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and Mr. Naidu from the BJP, and Mr. Sudershan, joint general secretary of the RSS, H.V. Seshadiri, and RSS man in-charge of BJP affairs, Madan Das Devi, from the RSS.

A hint that all differences were not sorted out came from Madan Das Devi, who told reporters after the meeting that ``there was need for a wider dialogue (on a number of issues) after three years of the (Vajpayee) Government which has been working on its own agenda''. The suggestion was that perhaps the Government needed to take a closer look at its own agenda and what it has achieved and what the people's perception (and that of the Sangh) was in relation to its performance. Mr. Naidu said that ``no specific issues were discussed ... and the name of no specific organisation (the VHP, for example) came up during the discussions.''

But he did add that issues related to ``national security, cross-border terrorism, infiltration, and other national issues were discussed''. Although the VHP may not have been mentioned by name, Mr. Naidu did make it clear that the BJP expected the VHP leaders to stop making personal attacks on the Prime Minister and members of his office.

The RSS has been saying that it must and will remain free to articulate its own point of view and the party can have no objection to that, Mr. Naidu said earlier before the meeting today. But what it wanted the RSS leaders to do is to rein in the VHP leaders and prevent them from making personal attacks on Mr. Vajpayee and others.

Another senior BJP leader said that when criticism came from the Sangh organisations it was seen by the public as criticism from within. ``If our own friends are critical of us, then what can we say in our defence''. That sums up the problem faced by the BJP. The party leadership has also become acutely aware that the kind of language used by the VHP leaders, such as Pravin Togadia, are doing more harm than good to the party and even the RSS. The RSS and the BJP leaders have been having regular interactions in the past and each time the decibel level of discordant noises between the various Sangh organisation rises such meetings are held in a bid to call a ceasefire. But in the past too the truce has been shortlived. Will the ceasefire last longer this time?

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