By Sanjiv Acharya
The leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj’s has stirred a hornet’s nest. Her latest confession to journalists that her party’s state units pressure central BJP leaders to stall the proceeding of the house on issues related to their state’s Congress leaders has shown that there is no synergy at the top levels of the BJP.
Unsaid but equally clear is Swaraj’s insinuation that there is a powerful lobby within her party that instead of helping her is creating problems for her. The reasons for this are fairly obvious – sharp differences at the top level of the BJP, especially amongst the second rung leaders, have cropped up since LK Advani relinquished ostensible command of the party.
It is a well known fact that both BJP President Nitin Gadkari and leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley have differences with her on one issue or the other. According to a former NDA minister and national office bearer of the BJP, Sushma Swaraj is almost alone except for the support from LK Advani, her main supporter and mentor. This source says that it is the duty of the party president Nitin Gadkari to play the role of an efficient mediator between the state units, central organisation and the parliamentary party about which issues are to be raised in the house and how. Sushma Swaraj’s confession shows that she herself is not of the opinion that the proceeding of the house should be stalled to the extent that the house is adjourned on any small or big issue.
When LK Advani was leader of opposition, he being the tallest leader of the party, use to take decisions on his own about party’s stand in the parliament. Now, at least four senior leaders are sulking namely former Union Minister Jaswant Singh, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha and Rajnath Singh. Unlike Sushma, deputy leader Karia Munda is cut from a different cloth and he just follows instructions.
There is serious dispute on the issue of stalling the house to raise demand of resignation of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit over her alleged involvement in the scandals surrounding the Commonwealth Games. Advani is chairman of the BJP Parliamentary Party, so he is supreme, but since he avoids confrontations these days, he has given a free hand to Sushma. But the point is she alone can’t handle the responsibility until others support her with the same enthusiasm they used when Advani was in her place.