BJP leaders shuffle their feet, waiting for word from Nagpur

The guarded reactions of the RSS and BJP leadership to the charges against Nitin Gadkari have prompted a number of leaders to recall two instances from the past: one in 1996, when then party President LK Advani resigned his Lok Sabha seat in the wake of fictitious hawala charges against him; and the other in 2001, when another party President Bangaru Laxman was sacked from the post on the same evening after a Tehelka sting showed him accepting a cash bribe. Why can’t the party apply the same principles in 2012? What has changed since then for the party which used to take the high moral ground on issues of probity in public life? A party leader explained that unlike 1996 and 2002, in the post Vajpayee-Advani era the BJP is not taking its own decisions on issues of this magnitude. The RSS has become a key player, and the party’s top leaders have been reduced to merely informing the RSS leadership of the internal feelings within the BJP. The RSS counter-point is this: What did the BJP gain from its knee-jerk reaction of removing Bangaru Laxman for accepting a small amount of Rs 1 lakh on behalf of the party. It was a sting operation and no real corruption or deal was involved. But his removal from the post was taken as prima facie admission of guilt, though Laxman was indeed pronounced guilty by a trial court and sentenced to four years of imprisonment. “So let there be an inquiry by the official agencies concerned. A decision can’t just be taken on the basis of a media trial. If something comes out of the inquiry, who can protect him and how?” were the loaded words of a senior RSS functionary. [caption id=“attachment_502836” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Nitin Gadkari and LK Advani in this file photo. PTI[/caption] “Wait for some more time” is the key sentiment now in both the BJP and the RSS. There is a great deal of concern about the resultant image loss even among those who defend Gadkari’s case stoutly, whether in public or in private. It is in this context that two written statements issued by Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj and party veteran LK Advani are being dissected by party colleagues at various levels. There is a general belief that their statements have more to do with internal party dynamics and their future hopes than about defending Gadkari on an issue relating to his personal business. “We, the members of the BJP, trust our president and stand firmly behind him (Nitin Gadkari)”, Swaraj declared in an official statement. Not many in the BJP, not even the 116 MPs she leads in the Lok Sabha, agree with her contention. Her Rajya Sabha counterpart and the party’s most articulate voice, Arun Jaitley, has maintained a conspicuous silence on the subject. Swaraj’s relations with Gadkari over the last three years have been more sour than sweet. She has also not had a particularly cozy relationship with the RSS brass. Reason: she is one of the few top BJP leaders who don’t come from an RSS background. What prompted her to make such a stout defence of Gadkari is the question. Ahead of the parliamentary polls, when all top party leaders are positioning themselves for the top slot should the BJP get the right numbers, she could be sending a coded message to the RSS bosses. Advani’s unexpected written statement, congratulating “Nitinji for voluntarily asking for an inquiry,” surprised many within and outside the BJP. But then many believe that Advani offered only nuanced support to the beleaguered party president. He said: “The UPA is trying to work a strategy to paint the entire political class with the same brush to minimise and escape its unpardonable sins. An offshoot of this is allegations of wrongdoing against the opposition leaders - an instance of which is the allegation against Shri Nitin Gadkari, the BJP President. This is more to neutralise the unprecedented charges against the ruling UPA”. It is the following sentence that could have an implicit meaning for Gadkari fate: “I am of the view that the BJP should be different and should not claim immunity on either scale or nature of the allegations.” The clock has started ticking for Gadkari, many in the BJP believe. The question is when will it be time to take a call.