5 June 2003

ATAL ANGRY AT ATTEMPTED COUP

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Wednesday night created a political turmoil deliberately to snub the ruling coterie of the BJP for plotting a virtual coup behind his back when he was on tour abroad.

He has a reason to be angry at the attempt made to marginalise his importance despite the fact that he has already given enough hints to the party's top leaders that he wants to call the day after leading the party to polls for the last time next year.

Never before the party has ever planned the poll strategy keeping Vajpayee out but BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu chose to do so by convening a meeting of the state presidents in Hyderabad and finalising a 25-point "action plan" or agenda for the elections.

Naidu wanted to project Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani as an alternative as on Monday he sought to put both Vajpayee and Advani on the same pedastals as the two "mascots." Even Advani was red-faced at Naidu's bravado as he could visualise its impact on Vajpayee because of their association for decades.

Advani wanted Naidu to make amends and so the next day Naidu was singing the tune of fighting polls with Vajpayee's "naam aur kaam" (name and work) and also took the party leaders to the Prime Minister's House Wednesday evening to assure him that nobody is challenging his leadership.

Vajpayee, however, chose to strike back to let the ruling coterie of BJP know that he is not in the dark about the "media management" to show him in bad light and build up image of Advani. And, so in his typical style, he concluded his speech with a stinging one-liner: "Na tired, na retired, ab agle chunav me advaniji ke netratva me vijay ki aur prasthan (Neither tired or retired but proceeding towards victory in the next election under Advani's leadership."

Vajpayee has a lurking doubt that the Media is regularly fed the news that his health does not permit him to carry on the responsibilities as the PM as he also sees some mischief in playing up his old remarks to a German magazine during his visit to show as if he is now retiring. As insiders say, he certainly wants to retire and hence he indicated that his attempt for peace with Pakistan will be the third and last, but he would not like anybody force him to retire.

Advani chose not to react and he may not open his mouth for another fortnight or so until the controversy dies down but Naidu and his favourite general secretary-cum-spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi are busy since past 24 hours trying to repeatedly hail Vajpayee as the leader. They, however, have no explanation as to why the Hyderabad coup.

They could organise the poll preparation meeting in Vajpayee's absence. But when it comes to hold the brain-storming (vichar manthan) session to involve all top leaders to decide how to face the next elections, they will wait till June 17 when Advani returns from his 10-day tour of America and Britain and joins others for the session to be held near Mumbai for four days.

While the BJP leaders at all levels were busy on Thursday trying to dismiss Vajpayee's discomforting remarks as nothing big, a word has spread that Naidu may have to pay the price. Naidu's distractors are already busy pointing out how he has become a loud mouth, making announcements like one on construction of a mosque next to the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and then blaming the Media for misreporting him.

Even on Thursday, Media was the whipping boy of Naidu and many other BJP leaders as it was accused of blowing out of proportions remarks of Vajpayee.  The man who may take the mantle from Naidu is the party's general secretary Pramod Mahajan who is maintaining a low profile since his exit from the Cabinet because of la affair Reliance. Mahajan was much senior to Naidu in the organisation before he moved to the Government but he was made to serve under Naidu.

While Advani chose silence and got busy preparing for the foreign trip from Friday night, not to let the furore die down was Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi who chose to exhort Vajpayee at Thursday's Cabinet meeting to lead the party and NDA in elections to be once again the Prime Minister. Joshi sees himself as an aspirant for the PM's "gaddi" (seat) and hence he has to be vocal whenever he finds Advani being projected after Vajpayee. Joshi has, in fact, set up a small team of journalists who are busy past six months projecting his image.

The Media reports suggest that Vajpayee phoned Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday, asking him not to bother much over the reports and interpretation of his off-the-cuff remarks. Of course, his snub has served the purpose, the message has gone to all concerned and so he does not want his friend Advani to be uncomfortable while abroad just because of this controversy.

Naidu was clossetted with the central office-bearers in the party headquarters on Thursday discussing fallout of the controversy and pleading with them to manage any new problem during his absence. He is leaving for Guwahati on Friday for a 2-day meeting of the NorthEast units' party presidents.

He told reporters once more that the the next general elections would be fought in the name of Vajpayee and the performance of his government, pleading with them not to blow out of proportions statements he or Vajpayee makes.

The Rashtriya Swayamseak Sangh (RSS) also sought to chip in to put an end to the controversy over differences with the BJP over the leadership ssue. How does it see Vajpayee asking Advani to lead the party in the next elections?  RSS spokesman Ram Madhav said, "If at all you read anything, it shows the mutual respect and confidence between the two leaders. It reflects Vajpayee's large heartedness, confidence and faith in Advani's capabilities.

"The RSS fully endorses Naidu's statement that Vajpayee would lead the party and that he is the number one leader of the country," Madhav said.

###