The Hindu : BJP's dilemma

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 17, 2003

National

National

BJP's dilemma

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 16. Almost against its wishes, the Bharatiya Janata Party is being drawn into the spat between Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav.

It has neither been able to defend the ``politically vindictive'' action of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, who has filed more than 100 first information reports against Mr. Yadav, nor does it find itself in a position to attack her, because she is a valuable political ally.

The BJP general secretary, Pramod Mahajan, today described the cases filed against Mr. Yadav ``in every district of the State'' as obviously not part of a routine case of law following its own course. At the same time, he blamed Mr. Yadav for virtually inviting this response by making public two videotapes of ``private meetings'' of Ms. Mayawati with her workers.

Mr. Mahajan said that ``political vendetta cannot be justified'', but Ms. Mayawati's action against Mr. Yadav ``also raises the question of how the whole matter started''. His view was that ``if this is the way we do politics, we cannot move an inch forward... everything will come to a standstill.''

Separately, party sources said that relations between the BJP and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch were currently ``excellent'' and that even in the BJP there was a realisation that the economic policy of the Government may need some ``mid-course correction''. It was pointed out that last month, there was a meeting between senior RSS, BJP and Manch leaders. The Manch did have a point of view on the WTO, which was extreme. They wanted India to get out of the WTO. However, on the Government moving faster than the mandated WTO timetable on removing quantitative restrictions on imports, the Manch may well be right.

The views on the Manch were being aired in the context of the harsh statements recently made by its founder, Dattopant Thengdi, virtually charging the Government with ``selling the national wealth to a few corporates'' through the disinvestment process. The Manch had also warned of traitors such as ``Jaichand and Mir Jafar'', adding that it would be naive to think that there would be no one in India who would be ready to sell the country.

The party also announced that the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K.Advani, and the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, would address a gathering of tribals from various states here on April 18.

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