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THE NATION:
BJP-SENA
Sparring
Partners
Allies
turn rivals as the Shiv Sena tries to capitalise on disquiet in the BJP
after Laxman's overture to Muslims
By Uday
Mahurkar
Comfortably
ensconced in power in Gujarat for long, the BJP may soon have to reckon
with a political rival of some consequence. Last week, when Union ministers
Manohar Joshi and Suresh Prabhu flew to Ahmedabad-where recent civic elections
were marred by communal riots-and launched an unprecedented attack against
"the BJP's surrender to the policy of Muslim appeasement", it
was clear that the Shiv Sena had plans to expand beyond Maharashtra-quite
possibly at the cost of its alliance partner at the Centre and in Maharashtra.
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| Laxman
being welcomed by Muslim leaders; Joshi and Prabhu with a riot victim's
father (far left) |
The immediate
provocation for the Sena's broadside against the BJP was the BJP President
Bangaru Laxman's call to his partymen to actively court Muslims. "Muslims
are getting emboldened after Laxman's attempts to woo them. Balasaheb
(Thackeray) was extremely concerned about the attack on the Hindus and
sent us here to protect Hindutva," said Joshi after meeting the families
of some of the victims of the riots. Joshi's diatribe against their party
took the Gujarat BJP by surprise and simultaneously generated unconcealed
glee at Vanikar Bhavan, the state Vishwa Hindu Parishad headquarters.
Asked whether Laxman's call had in any way affected the BJP-Sena relationship,
Joshi said, "The Sena won't let the Hindus suffer and will always
strive to protect the interests of the majority community." But a
top leader of the VHP, who has played a crucial role in the BJP's rise
in Gujarat, reacted more bluntly, saying, "The BJP's moves to appease
minorities will prove suicidal. The party will end up as the Congress's
B-team."
What happened
in Gujarat may be an extreme manifestation of the disquiet in the party
in the wake of Laxman's minority-wooing exercise, but it is no way limited
to the state. In Mumbai, the Sena supremo's son Uddhav Thackeray renamed
Bangaru "Baang Maru Laxman" (the rooster's call). The senior
Thackeray was, of course, livid. At a series of campaign meetings for
the municipal polls in Kalyan and Dombivli where the BJP and Sena are
fighting each other, he wondered aloud about the BJP's sudden discovery
of its love for Muslims and used expletives to describe the actions of
the BJP. Asked at one meeting if the Sena would stay with the BJP following
the latter's new-found love for Muslims, he declared: "For us, Hindutva
is more important than power."
Nothing
highlights the Sena-BJP divide better than the resignation of Yatin Oza,
the BJP MLA from Ahmedabad's Sabarmati constituency. A top-notch lawyer
practising in the Gujarat High Court, Oza has been in the party for long
but is expected to join the Sena in the near future. When he does that,
he can expect a grand reception. Bal Thackeray has plans to welcome him
into the party at a grand public meeting in Ahmedabad and has even promised
Oza that he will be the Sena's candidate in the next election to the state
assembly for the Sabarmati assembly seat. Says Oza: "With its policies,
the BJP is creating space for the Sena. After I declared my intentions
to join the Sena thousands of people have approached me from influential
sections, including the BJP, to join the Sena."
Sena
Can Trump The BJP: At
the moment, the Sena's presence in the state is minuscule though at the
taluka level, it functions in about 15 districts. But even BJP diehards
say that if Thackeray takes a keen interest it won't take much time for
the Sena to woo the BJP voter in the backdrop of the party's appeal to
Muslims. Among the vote catchers for the Sena is Shivramdasji Maharaj,
a popular Sadhu who played a key role in mobilising Hindus during the
Ramjanma bhoomi movement. In the recent civic polls, he campaigned for
the Sena. Says Umesh Engineer, the Ahmedabad district president of the
Sena: "The party will develop here in time for the assembly polls
two years from now. Lower-level BJP workers are getting disillusioned
with the party's attempts to appease Muslims." Adds Oza: "With
two years still left and with the way the BJP is moving, the Sena will
be in a position strong enough not to allow the BJP to form the next state
government. Gujarat is a dark saffron state and the BJP's somersault from
Hindu protection to Muslim appeasement is bound to tell on it."
Though perturbed
by the Sena's foray, BJP leaders are trying to put on a brave face. Says
BJP state General Secretary Gordhan Jhadhaphia: "We are not unduly
ruffled by the Sena's movements. It doesn't have a party structure to
challenge us." Over confidence perhaps. After all, until the Ramjanmabhoomi
issue gained momentum in the mid-1980s, the BJP's party structure in Gujarat
was nothing to write home about.
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