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Laxman snubs UP unit chief

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Bharatiya Janata Party head honcho in Uttar Pradesh Kalraj Mishra has been snubbed by party chief Bangaru Laxman for contradicting Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta on the issue of the Students Islamic Movement in India.

"Laxman has warned Mishra not to shoot his mouth off on an issue involving a minority community as it sends confusing signals among its members," said a party vice-president. He pointed out that Laxman had reminded Mishra to refrain from commenting on sensitive issues involving the community "unless it is the official party line".

Gupta had contradicted Mishra when he demanded that the SIMI be banned for indulging in disruptive activities in the state, following instructions from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.

Gupta said that while he did not favour a ban on SIMI, he would initiate tough measures against its members for alleged "anti-social activities".

Mishra had alleged that SIMI members had carried out several blasts in the state on the eve of Independence Day and it was a "gross anti-national act".

The BJP leadership's new-found sensitivity against criticism of Muslims increasingly reflects its desire to woo them, with Laxman contending that many among the minority community do not perceive the saffron party as being against them.

Party chief spokesman M Venkaiah Naidu asserted that "Muslims are now turning away from the Congress'', indicating that they were disillusioned with it for 50 years. He said that while the BJP's primary and active membership had significantly increased, it had apparently been at the cost of the Congress.

Naidu, however, said he was unaware of Laxman's warning to Mishra.

Despite the denial by the BJP leadership, the chasm between its hawks and doves has increased ever since Laxman, following blessings from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, pushed what political commentators term as its 'Muslim card'.

Laxman and his supporters in the party are frequently quoting the late Jana Sangh leading light Shyama Prasad Mukherjee saying that "Muslims are our own flesh and blood".

Laxman had also issued a stern warning to party members that he would not tolerate indiscipline and accordingly marginalised senior party members K Govindacharya and former Union minister Sushma Swaraj who had criticised the Vajpayee government policies.

But that, however, does not seem to have discouraged the Hindutva hardliners from occasionally sounding off against the party line on issues such as the Ram temple in Ayodhya, revoking Article 370 of the Constitution and frowning upon the move to woo the minority community to buttress the party's votebank.

Constituents of the Sangh Parivar, like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, however, remain determined to press ahead with their Hindutva agenda. VHP leaders like Praveen Togadia and Acharya Giriraj Kishore keep iterating that the BJP's "appeasement of minorities'' would be suicidal for the saffron party.

They have advocated that only their hardline stance would rid the country of its ill and "defeat forces of pseudo-secularism," which, according to them, is encouraging anti-national trends.

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