The Hindu : National : Efforts to bring Uma Bharti round

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 13, 2004

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National

Efforts to bring Uma Bharti round

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, NOV. 12. Intense efforts are being made by sections of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to bring about a rapprochement between the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has so far not sent any show-cause notice to her despite the announcement two days ago that she had been suspended from the party.

Officially, the BJP leadership has said that it wanted to follow the procedure laid down for taking disciplinary action. First a meeting of the newly-constituted disciplinary committee is expected to take place under the chairmanship of Ram Naik. The committee will consider the action of suspension recommended unanimously by the party office-bearers and ratified by the party president, L.K. Advani. It will then issue the show-cause notice.

However, RSS sources said that efforts were being made to bring Ms. Bharti round and prevent a firm action by the BJP against her. "We are confident that the matter will be resolved, but not immediately,'' an RSS leader said on condition of anonymity.

`A daughter turned out'

Ms. Bharti met Mr. Advani on Thursday, a day after her dramatic suspension from the party, and handed over a letter to him which she read out to the media. She said that nothing that she had done could be defined as indiscipline.

However, she did strike a personal note when she described herself as a "daughter'' who had been turned out of her home on the auspicious occasion of "dhanteras" (two days before Diwali).

She is reported to have left for the Himalayas and, clearly, it would be difficult for the party to serve a show-cause notice on her while she is on her way to a pilgrimage. Although some party leaders said there was "no re-thinking,'' the delay in serving the notice suggests that the party does not want to close the option of bringing the "sanyasin" back to the BJP.

After the party's diktat virtually forbidding leaders from talking to the press, none of the leaders were willing to say anything on what the next episode of the Uma Bharti story would be. "As of now, she remains suspended from the party,'' was all that the party spokesperson, Arun Jaitley, would say.

Bihar elections

Since the next major electoral battle will take place in Bihar in less than four months, some party leaders are worried about the fallout of the party bickering on the election there. The Janata Dal (United), its alliance partner in the State, is also a divided house with some leaders saying that it should move away from the BJP.

This issue is expected to come into focus when the meeting of the National Democratic Alliance leaders take place here on November 15. Significantly, the meeting was called after the JD(U) demanded it and wanted the BJP to explain whether it intended to move back to its Hindutva ideology or remain committed to a secular NDA agenda for governance.

Three issues

The BJP's direction will become clearer after the meeting of the first national executive committee after Mr. Advani took over as party president. That is scheduled to be held in Ranchi for three days from November 24. The lack of discipline within the BJP, the pressure on it from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to remain firmly with the Hindutva agenda and the insistence by its allies such as the JD(U), the Telugu Desam Party and others that the BJP choose between Hindutva and them are the three main issues before the party.

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