|
|
|
|
Deccan Herald » Sunday Spotlight » Detailed Story
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Modi hangs on despite dissidence
|
|
Nandini Oza
in Ahmedabad
|
The decision to form a coordination committee to link party and government is an attempt to clip Modi’s wings.
|
|
|
When the top leaders of the BJP from Gujarat met national BJP president L K Advani last Thursday to demand state Chief Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi’s removal, there were many, including a section of the media, who thought that the “Hindutva Hero” could be on his way out. But the BJP which has been dubbing itself as a party with a difference has put off today’s problem to tomorrow.
“No decision has been taken on change in leadership,” said former national party president Venkaiah Naidu. But the BJP has asked Modi to accomodate his critics in the party. Probably only Advani knows if Modi’s days are numbered or not. The party high command holds the record for saying something similar every time there has been a change of guard. Will he be removed or not? This is the question everyone asks. If he is removed, where will he be rehabilitated? Sources in the BJP admit that the young turks in the BJP at the national level are not very keen to have Modi in New Delhi, his inflated ambition, being a reason.
Also, no leader in the Gujarat BJP has statewide acceptance as a successor. Most importantly, the rebels do not have a rallying point. No one has the guts to do a Shankersinh Waghela, who wanted to form his own party after being sacked for orchestrating a rebellion against then chief minister Suresh Mehta. A former minister in the Modi cabinet Haren Pandya, a gutsy man, is no more. He was assassinated two years ago.
| | | Advertisement | | |  |
Only time will tell whether Modi, who loves controversies, wins or loses. But if he is compelled to expand the cabinet and appoint chairmen to boards and corporations in Gujarat then it would be unlike Modi for he has delayed the process for over two years after the BJP won the assembly elections with a thumping majority in December 2002 elections after the Godhra carnage and post-Godhra riots.
His autocratic style of functioning, tapping phones of MLAs, granting favours to industrial houses and using their choppers free of cost and raiding business houses of BJP MLAs are among the allegations of the rebel camp led by former chief ministers Keshubhai Patel and Suresh Mehta, former Union ministers Kashiram Rana and Vallabh Kathiriya. The rebel camp claims to have the support of 60-odd MLAs in a House of 182 MLAs. The BJP has 127 MLAs. For the rebels, claims that Modi and his government have administered the state well, are secondary.
This is not the first time that Modi has faced dissidence. Some MLAs were against him for the very same reasons after the party lost in the state in last Lok Sabha elections. However, the dissidence fizzled out last time after the party high command’s intervened. Sources said the dissidents were promised a cabinet expansion, which did not take place. But what will happen this time? “It is not a question of dissidence fizzling out. We have said everything we wanted to say to the party leadership,” Gujarat BJP president Rajendrasinh Rana said.
Speculation is rife that Modi will undertake a cabinet expansion after the party’s executive committee meeting on April 6. Modi is currently holding as many as 11 key portfolios, including home, industry, information and petrochemicals. There are only 15 ministers whereas 12 more can be accommodated. Modi might even want a person of his choice as state party president in place of Rajendrasinh Rana, who has overstayed his term. The third possibility, mostly rumours, is that the chief minister and the state party chief will be changed simultaneously.
“BJP wins on Modi wave” and “Hindutva hero brings BJP back to power” were some of the headlines when the BJP held on to power in the 2002 assembly elections. The BJP played the Hindutva card and Modi became a hero for the majority of Hindus in Gujarat, but his image certainly got a beating. Several human rights reports indicted the state government and Modi for his role in the communal riots. That Modi had become a liability to the BJP was proved when the US denied him a visa while categorically stating that the decision did not reflect on the BJP. Removing Modi becomes difficult for the party because it recently kicked up dust over the visa issue.
The dissidents have been warned not to wash dirty linen in public. When BJP tackles the dissidence issue, it will also have to do some soul-searching on what went wrong in Gujarat, considered the party’s model state. After all, in the last 10 years of the BJP’s rule in the state, not a single chief minister has survived a full term of five years.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sunday, April 3, 2005
