In a move aimed at placating the leaders of Margdarshak Mandal, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in consultation with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top brass, has devised a damage-control strategy to reach out to the aggrieved leaders – LK Advani and MM Joshi.
According to party insiders, after deliberations among the top brass of both RSS and BJP, it has been decided to submit a report about the new developments in the party to five-member Margdarshak Mandal, which comprises Advani, Joshi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, it must be noted that since Vajpayee is not keeping well, his role in party decisions is insignificant.
The move has been initiated to calm down the party veterans, who had raised a banner against the leadership of Modi and party president Amit Shah in the wake of Bihar poll debacle.
Soon after the party’s review meet on poor performance in the politically crucial state, the veterans through a letter had stated that the party had been “emasculated” in the past one year and was being “forced to kow-tow to a handful”.
Under the new arrangement, the party leadership and ministers in the Union government will give all latest development in the organisation and their respective ministries to the members of the Margdarshak Mandal on a monthly basis.
The party leadership and ministers would submit information such as future programmes of the party, new schemes and new policies. According to party insiders, directions in this regard have already been issued by the party to ministers and all concerned persons.
According to sources in the RSS, the decision has been taken after members of the Margdarshak Mandal launched a frontal attack on the party’s leadership after the Bihar debacle. Though the party and the RSS were divided over action on the members of the Margdarshak Mandal, it was finally decided to keep the veterans in the loop by providing them with information about the latest developments in the party and the government on a regular basis.
After Delhi, the BJP tasted a resounding defeat in Bihar. This annoyed the four veteran leaders, including Advani and Joshi, who had issued a stinging statement, indicating the onus of the defeat on the leadership of BJP president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Seizing the Bihar debacle to make a point, the four leaders, including former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha and former Himachal Pradesh CM Shanta Kumar, said that the Bihar loss showed that “no lesson was learnt from the fiasco in Delhi,” where the Aam Aadmi Party trounced the BJP by securing 67 of the 70 Assembly seats. The BJP has managed to win only 53 out of 160 seats contested in the Bihar assembly elections.