Advani wants introspection in letter & spirit

22 Jun 2009, ET Bureau


NEW DELHI: Leader of the Opposition L K Advani on Sunday endorsed the demands from a section of the BJP leaders for a “sincere” and “honest” stock-taking of the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls, but said at the same time that such an exercise should not reduced to score-settling.

Endorsing the sentiments expressed on Saturday by another party veteran, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Sunder Lal Patwa, Mr Advani, while delivering his valedictory speech at the BJP’s national executive, said that the party should not be found wanting in honest introspection.

"But introspection is different from finger-pointing. Let us treat the outcome of the elections as behoves a mature and highly resilient political party,’’ he said. The internal bickerings, he said, had demoralised the cadre.

Mr Advani’s remarks came against the backdrop of the growing clamour from among a section of leaders, including former Union ministers Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, for undertaking a post-mortem of the election results, and fixing responsibility.

The campaign, it is suspected by many, was orchestrated by BJP president Rajnath Singh. He, in fact, called up one of the letter-writers on Friday to tell him that he endorsed the views expressed by him in his letter.

They had, in particular, taken exception to the leadership’s decision to ``reward’’ the party’s campaign strategists, rather than apportioning blame among them. Their ire was directed against party leader Arun Jaitley, who steered the party’s campaign in the general election, but ended up being elevated as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

In her intervention on the inaugural day of the BJP’s national executive, former Union minister Maneka Gandhi too had blamed Mr Jaitley for messing up the party’s campaign in Uttar Pradesh. ``He had no time to talk to anybody. He was busy planting stories in the media,’’ she had alleged.

By speaking out against this tendency of pointing accusing fingers at potential rivals, Mr Advani on Sunday made it clear that he was not in favour using the introspection exercise to settle personal scores.

Earlier in the day, several other leaders, including Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, BJP general secretary Gopinath Munde, former Union ministers Sumitra Mahajan and Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav too had come out hard against the attempts to hurl dirt at rivals in the name of introspection and accountability.

“How does one fix accountability? The party fared poorly in Uttarakhand. Will the party haul the state unit chief over coals for the washout. On the other hand, the party performed very well in states such as Bihar, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh. Will you reward the party chiefs of these states?’’ Mr Modi sought to know.
Mr Yadav too carried out a veiled attack against Mr Singh, Mr Shourie and Mr Sinha.

``How did letters written by them to the party president find their way to the media? I must have written several letters in the past to Advaniji and Rajnathji, but the contents of these letters were never leaked to the press,’’ he said.

He poked fun at the practice of rewarding Lok Sabha election losers with berths in the Rajya Sabha, and allowing Rajya Sabha members to contest elections.

The entire campaign to fix accountability on the party president’s rivals was orchestrated by Mr Rajnath Singh himself. He, in fact, told one of the ``letter-writers’’ that he was in agreement with every word mentioned in the letter and that it should be discussed by the national executive.

Mr Advani also used the opportunity to tell the delegates that he was not in any hurry to hand over the baton anytime soon. He informed that he had decided to tour the entire country in the coming months to interact with the party cadre to let them know about the opportunities and challenges before them. This was a clear hint that he intended to stay on till his succession line-up was cleared.

It also reaffirmed the view that the national executive had failed to inject any clarity on the war-of-succession that has erupted among the top leaders.

The BJP veteran, at the same time, gave a call to promote younger leaders in view of the inertia that had gripped the party at all levels.

"The party has to urgently evolve a system of encouraging younger leaders at all levels...It is sad that a certain ‘train-compartment’ mentality has got developed within the party, which makes those in leadership positions to ignore promising, talented and committed cadres who are standing outside and waiting for the door to open. We must identify, train, groom and empower third, fourth and fifth generation leaders in the BJP,’’ Mr Advani said.