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EDITORIAL So far it has been Mr L.K. Advani and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh --- the two sides of the same coin. Even the worst of their critics never thought that a time would come when they would walk in different directions. The RSS had given but only one indication that it was not happy the way the BJP was functioning: its political arm was dependent upon just one leader (Mr Advani) who was called upon to lead the party whenever there was a crisis and, as a result, was unable to throw up a new face. In fact, its sarsanghachalak K.S. Sudarshan had not mentioned Mr Advani by name but given enough hint that he wanted him to quit as the BJP chief when he publicly pleaded the case for younger leaders to take the party reins in their hands. The turmoil then in the organisational ranks was short-lived........more At last there has been a
meeting between Muzaffarabad-based Hizbul Mujahideen
supremo Syed Salahuddin and Hurriyat Conference leader
Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq and Jammu-Kashmir Liberation
Front chairman Yasin Malik in Islamabad. They had not met
in Muzaffarabad, the capital of "Azad" Kashmir
as the occupied territory across the Line of Control is
known where the touring Hurriyat Conference |
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By Subhashis Mittra Sir Creek, a 96-km long strip of water which runs along the Rann of Kutch in India and Sindh in Pakistan, is in the centre of an old dispute on demarcation of the boundary. Talks with Pakistan to resolve the outstanding ....more Parliamentary supervision defence By Vinod Vedi The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence has finally decided that there should be some accountability in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) which is entrusted with the task of taking the nation through the minefield of licenced- ...more Non-aligned movement regenerating deadwood By J. N. Raina We were elated when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was given the rare honour to speak on behalf of entire Asia, at the signing ceremony of a historic Asia-Africa Strategic Partnership agreement (AASP) at Bandung (Indonesia).The occasion was--- commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the first Bandung Conference that had, inter alia, given birth to non-aligned movement. Then, Non-alignment was ...more |
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EDITORIAL So far it has been Mr L.K. Advani and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh --- the two sides of the same coin. Even the worst of their critics never thought that a time would come when they would walk in different directions. The RSS had given but only one indication that it was not happy the way the BJP was functioning: its political arm was dependent upon just one leader (Mr Advani) who was called upon to lead the party whenever there was a crisis and, as a result, was unable to throw up a new face. In fact, its sarsanghachalak K.S. Sudarshan had not mentioned Mr Advani by name but given enough hint that he wanted him to quit as the BJP chief when he publicly pleaded the case for younger leaders to take the party reins in their hands. The turmoil then in the organisational ranks was short-lived. However, Mr Advani’s sentimental rediscovery of himself during his tour of Karachi in Pakistan where he was born and had grown up as a teenager has substantially transformed the scenario. Perhaps it would have been all right had Mr Advani kept his emotions to himself. Although fond of mythical characters he seemed to forget that there was a clear Lakshman rekha that his parent organisation (the RSS and not the BJP) had drawn for itself and in further strengthening which he had no small role to play. His praise of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, as a secular leader was too much to take for the men in charge of the RSS who have always looked at the father of the two-nation theory as a hate symbol. We are too close to history to immediately jump to the conclusion whether this one remark alone and the hostile reaction it invited from the RSS was responsible for Mr Advani’s resignation as the BJP chief or there is something more to it than that meets the eye. It is possible that Mr Advani rubbed the knife further into the wounds of the RSS leadership when soon after landing at the Delhi airport he virtually challenged them to a debate on what he had said in Pakistan. This must have been too much for the RSS to accept. It may be discussing controversial issues within its closed precincts but has never approved of its own members tearing to shreds its core beliefs at public forums or even remotely question its authority. That is why evidently it insisted upon Mr Advani withdrawing his pro-Jinnah observation and when no such retraction came despite senior BJP leaders intervening in the matter and Mr Advani resigned its reaction was unmistakably terse: "The debate is over". It will be quite a surprise if Mr Advani now continues to hold his other post as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Either he himself will be uncomfortable in this position or he may be asked to hand over the baton to another party MP. By sticking to his guns and declining to follow any diktat to dissociate himself from his statement Mr Advani has apparently made it known that he will not be able to change his new tune in the days to come as well. Given his penchant for displaying his courage of conviction there is every chance instead that he runs into repeated confrontation with the RSS leadership. Will he end up being another Balraj Madhok? There are other questions that simultaneously arise. Has he made a genuine amendment in his original perception? Or has he been deprived of the opportunity to explain that the Jinnah analogy was a carefully drafted ploy designed to describe K.S. Hegdewar, Guru Golwalkar and Savarkar and many like them as true secularists in due course? Has the RSS missed the point altogether or is it that it finds such comparison not only unacceptable but also disgusting? Is it that this episode will lead the RSS to prepare itself for a greater political role in future? Those who look askance at this view need to be reminded of all that had happened in this region in the 2002 assembly elections: the RSS had come out in the open at that time and put its weight behind the Jammu State Morcha spelling the doom of the BJP including in its traditional stronghold of Jammu East. Would the matters have come to such a head had Mr Advani confined his praise only to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf --- he is reported to have been carried away by the present government’s efforts to renovate temples in the neighbouring country? If Mr Advani has found virtues in Jinnah with the faith that this will help strengthen the present bonhomie between India and Pakistan his exit as the boss is indeed a loss for then BJP and the country? In fact it is this thinking that has earned for him a wide applause by those sections that have always been opposed to him. If this view sticks then the RSS will be more and more seen as a rabid outfit interested in sharpening the cleavage not only between Hindus and Muslims but also India and Pakistan. As a fall-out it will be considered only as good as its lunatic fringe unless there is a sudden turn and the hostility between the two neighbours resurfaces? The better course for it will be to help the ongoing peace process. Who can deny that there is no bigger challenge than that of maintaining the current normalcy and tranquility in the sub-continent? At last there has been a meeting between Muzaffarabad-based Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Syed Salahuddin and Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq and Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik in Islamabad. They had not met in Muzaffarabad, the capital of "Azad" Kashmir as the occupied territory across the Line of Control is known where the touring Hurriyat Conference leaders and JKLF chief were accorded a warm reception by almost everybody who is anybody except for the United Jihad Council (UJC), an amalgam of militant outfits, of which too Syed Salahuddin whose real name is Moulvi Yusuf Shah is the head. As stated in these columns earlier we would have been truly surprised had there been no meeting between them even though the UJC had made it clear that it would not be party to any official gathering because of the failure of the Hurriyat Conference to present a united face on their visit. The basis for our thinking was that whatever their political differences they would find it difficult to completely ignore their personal relations. They share the emotional link with the same land. Actually in Mr Malik’s instance one of his early introductions is that he was polling agent of Syed Salahuddin when he had contested the Assembly elections from the Amirakadal constituency before assuming the role of a militant leader. On his part the Hizbul boss has stated clearly that he had met the duo at an individual level. All those who have visited "Azad" Kashmir and Pakistan can vouch for the fact that such contact generally transcends religious and ideological barriers notwithstanding that Syed Salahuddin has been rather selective. |
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