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When
Union Minister of State for Railways Bangaru Laxman, a Dalit leader
from Andhra Pradesh, was picked up as a "consensus" choice to head
the BJP, many were surprised. But Laxman, 61, is not an unknown
face. The new chief, who started attending shakhas when he was just
12, will now be heading a faction-ridden, personalities-oriented
party. After filing his nomination papers he met Deputy Editor Swapan
Dasgupta and Associate Editor Farzand Ahmed to discuss the challenges
before him as the party chief. Excerpts:
Q. What are the main challenges before you as party president?
A. To preserve the Government's maryada and at the same time
ensure the party's growth and expansion.
Q. What about indiscipline in the party?
A. This is the problem of growth. The party has attained power
but not on its own strength alone. Yet workers think power is the
centre around which everything revolves. Workers want something
from the Government but the party is not in a position to give it.
Q.
What's the solution?
A. Today a minister draws a bigger crowd than a party leader.
I will make every effort to enforce discipline and free the cadre
from power-oriented politics.
Q.
How do you see the role of the party chief vis-a-vis the government?
A. Proper co-ordination and communication will remove confusion.
I will try to strength coordination which was established by Kushabhau
Thakreji.
Q.
Do you foresee any conflict between the Sangh Parivar and the BJP
or the Government on certain issues?
A. Disagreement does not mean confrontation. The RSS and the
Swadeshi Jagran Manch have different perception and the BJP, as
head of the NDA Government, has certain compulsions.
Q.
But the Sangh feels that the BJP in power has deviated from its
principles.
A. We have to follow the NDA agenda which has got the people's
mandate. The janata has given the mandate for certain policies.
How can we deviate from it?
Q.
What will be your priorities as party chief?
A. To achieve the 300-mark in the Lok Sabha. And to strengthen
the BJP's base in the states that will be going to the polls soon.
Q.
It is said that Vajpayee wanted a weak party president so that he
could maintain his hold over it while the RSS wanted its own man
to maintain its own hold. Where do you fit in?
A. (Laughs) I am nobody's man. I am a party man and will be
guided by the party. Atalji, Advaniji and the Sangh will have a
point of view. In the BJP decisions are not taken by any individual.
It's always a collective effort.
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Can
Bangaru Laxman do for the BJP what Lieberman has done for Al Gore, questions
S. Prasannarajan in
India
should learn the kung-fu of business or get hammered by China after it
joins the WTO, says Sudeep Chakravarti in
"It
is a frustration that India and Pakistan have not grown up enough to pull
their heads out of the sand." Read an exclusive interview with 
