|
STATES: UTTAR PRADESH
Ravan Raj In Ram's Party
The years in power have corrupted the state BJP unit.
It is hardly battle ready.
|
|
 |
|
|
RESOLUTE IN HIS REVERIE: Mishra insists the party is healthy and
honest
|
In a recent book
on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, senior BJP politician Hriday Narain Dixit recounted
how the founder of the Jan Sangh travelled to public meetings riding a
friend's bicycle. "One day," recalled Dixit, "Deen Dayalji's
leg hit the cycle wheel and it started bleeding. But he didn't tell his
friend and went to the rally despite his injury." It's the sort of
story that will warm any old Sanghi's heart, stressing the virtues of
simple living and high thinking that the BJP-the Jan Sangh's successor
party-once prided itself on. It is also the sort of story that would appear
fictional, given what the BJP's office bearers in Uttar Pradesh have been
up to.
The party has been in power in Lucknow for more
than half the decade since 1991. In this period, says one insider, "district
presidents who used to travel on bicycles can now be seen in a Tata Sumo
or a Toyota Qualis". The sanghathan mantris (organising secretaries)-the
key men in the party structure, generally blessed by the RSS and in the
past including stalwarts like Murli Manohar Joshi and Ram Prakash Gupta-have
become so tainted that two of the five were sacked recently. The BJP has
split the state into six regions, each to be looked after by an organising
secretary. Currently, three incumbents run two regions apiece.
One organising secretary has such a colourful
reputation that party circles refer to him as "Daam Pyare" (Rate
Friendly). Another refused to undertake an official tour because the car
allotted to him did not have an air conditioner and would "give me
a headache". During the 1999 Lok Sabha election, the organising secretaries
were, as is usual, the agency for giving money to candidates. More than
one BJP aspirant complained the sum promised never reached him in full.
One organising secretary went to the other extreme and asked candidates
in each of the 13 constituencies he had been told to visit to reimburse
his entire petrol bill.
There have also been accusations of sexual harassment
against both organising secretaries and their subordinates, the divisional
vibhagya mantris. An office-bearer of the Yuva Morcha-aged 40 and a mother
of three-has complained that a vibhagya mantri is making indecent proposals
and asking her to leave her husband. Says Gita Chauhan, a former party
functionary in Kanpur Dehat who left in disgust to join the Congress:
"Some organising secretaries demanded money, others expected more
from a woman. I refused and was constantly denied a party ticket."
In 1999, then state BJP acting president Om
Prakash Singh sought to take action against "contractors and criminals
in the party". He also asked the organising secretaries to submit
accounts for the 1999 Lok Sabha campaign. He got replies like, "Ab
kahan yaad hai, kisko kitna paisa diya tha (How do I remember whom I paid
and how much)?" By coincidence or otherwise, Singh soon lost his
charge. His successor, Kalraj Mishra, insists the "organising secretaries
are working with full dedication and honesty". The fact is that the
party edifice Mishra presides over is riddled with holes. In an election
year, that is half the battle lost.
--Subhash Mishra
|
METRO TODAY
Web
Exclusives
