Expulsion of Ram Jethmalani from BJP
By Upendra Prasad
After the ouster of Ram Jethmalani from BJP, Congress spokesman Shakil Ahmad was quick to react that it was the first move against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi by the parliamentary board of the Party. Is he right or he is just enjoying the infighting of the saffron Party? This is important development when we look at the fact that whenever the issue of the candidature of Prime Minister of the party comes, the President Rajnath Singh swiftly replies that only the Parliamentary Board of the Party can decide about it and the decision by it would be taken at appropriate time. In the same vein he speaks that Narendra Modi is the most popular leader of the country.
Recently, one of the General Secretaries of the Party, Thawar Chand Gehlot declared that while taking the decision on PM candidate, the parliamentary board will take into account the public sentiment. It is no secret what the public sentiment is. All surveys conducted by Marketing Research Agencies and Media Houses show that Modi is the most popular political leader of India and the second to him is far behind. Some surveys indicate Rahul Gandhi as the second most popular leader and some surveys conclude Manmohan Singh as the second one. No BJP leader stands anywhere near Modi, so far as public choice as reflected by all surveys is concerned.
Narendra Modi may be the most popular leader of the country, but within BJP he does not command the support of senior national leaders. Many national leaders have their own ambition to become the Prime Minister, if BJP gets a chance to form the next government. Narendra Modi is facing stiffest challenge from his mentor Lal Krishna Advani, who had even saved him aftermath of post Godhra violence in Gujarat from removal by the then Vajpayee government. Mr Advani is the most senior leader of the party. Despite his age, he is physically, psychologically, mentally and emotionally fit to remain in active politics and discharge all his assignments as a leader and administrator.
As the senior most leader of the party and also as the architect of the Ram Temple movement responsible for the strengthening the party, he considers himself a nature choice for the Prime Minister post. He could not become Prime Minister, when BJP first formed government in 1996, because of the Hawala case pending against him and also due to the fact that at that time Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the senior most leader of the party. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was also the most popular leader at that time. But, when Vajpayee is out of the political scene now, Mr Advani considers himself to be the natural choice of the party for the top job in the government, if it is headed by BJP.
Lal Krishna Advani has the support of some senior leaders as well. In fact many senior leaders like Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitely and Venkaiya Naidu owe their present position in party and politics only because of Lal Krishna Advani.
One interesting thing about Ram Jethmalani is that he has been close to both Advani and Modi. Advani and Jethmalani are very old associates. They both entered into Indian Parliament at the same time in 1977. Both of them have common background and originally hailed from Sindh, which is now in Pakistan. Both were displaced because of partition of India. Jethmalani was even lawyer of Advani in famous Hawala case. But of late Narendra Modi has become his choice man for the candidature of Prime Minister. Obviously he must have fallen from the grace of LK Advani. The composition of parliamentary board of the party is such that the number of Advani supporters is higher. The board has 12 members. Atal Bihari Vajpayee is one of them. Since he is out of the political scene because of his poor health, the effective number of Parliamentary Board of the party is 11. If Narendra Modi and Adavani combine would have stood by Jethmalani, it would have been impossible for the board to expel him. His expulsion only suggests that Jethmalani no longer commands the support of Advani. Narendra Modi alone could not have saved him. So he went with the majority view.
Rajnath Singh says that the Parliamntary Board of the Party will take the final call so far as the candidature of Prime Minister is concerned. The Parliamentary Board consists of many members, who are not known as supporters of Narendra Modi. It has five former presidents namely, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Venkaiya Naidu and Nitin Gadkari. The present President Rajnath Singh is the sixth one. Leaders of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitely make are also in the board. Thavar Chand Gehlot, Ram Lal and Anant Kumar are the remaining three members other than Narendra Modi himself.
It is obvious that in number count, Narendra Modi will face the opposition of the majority whenever his name will come for consideration. The only factor in his favor would be his popularity among the voters as reflected by the surveys. Second factor may be the support he gets from RSS. But RSS front, too, is not said to be very conducive for the Gujarat CM. The fact that even RSS is not well disposed in favour of Advani can be his only solace, but politics is always not run by likings and disliking. We have seen Advani, who was against the continuation of Nitin Gadkari as Party President, recommending his name for the post of Chairman of the Election Campaign Committee of the party during Lok Sabha poll. If Gadkari was not fit to head the party before elections, because of corruption charges against him, how can he be fit to head the Election Campaign Committee. It is obvious that LK Advani is trying to buy peace with the RSS leaders, who are not well oriented towards Narendra Modi.
The expulsion of Ram Jethmalani from BJP is significant in the sense that Narendra Modi has lost a leader, who was vocal in his support to him. In the past BJP had allowed Jethmalani to hold his independent opinion and make them public despite it being against the party line. Jethmalani was against Nitin Gadkari continuing as the party president. Now Gadkari no longer holds that post. So what was the need o expel him? Naturally, this decision has something to do with the Prime Minister candidature and it is definitely against Narendra Modi. (IPA Sevice)