NEW DELHI: The leak of the Liberhan Commission Report is being seen as a silver-lining for the faction-ridden BJP, which is passing through a rough patch, with the RSS donning the role of a big brother and dictating to the BJP on the leadership issue. At a time when Leader of Opposition L K Advani was planning his retreat and the party leadership was busy settling scores with one another, talk of the Ram Mandir Movement has once again refreshed memories of the veterans, who are vying to take “pride” in being associated with it.
Agitated that the name of former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee has been unnecessarily dragged in, Leader of Opposition L K Advani, along with the senior leaders like Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and M Venkaiah Naidu succeeded in paralysing the proceedings of both Houses of Parliament and at the same time restricting their focus on the “plant” of the story.
Without going into the larger issue of whether the demolition of the Babri Masjid was justified and whe-ther they had a role to play in the destruction of the mosque, the BJP leade-rship has set its sights on patching-up with the RSS by taking pride on being “associated with the Ram Mandir Movement.” The larger question of whether L K Advani will use the issue to continue as Leader of Opposition is not known, though doubts are being raised whether he would quit soon after the winter session of Parliament, as decided earlier.
For Advani, the Liberhan Commission report comes at a time when his relations with the RSS is strained and the latter is keen to see him retire sooner than later.
Damage control
The Congress went into damage control mode. Party president Sonia Gandhi called an emergency meeting of top Congress leaders to work out a strategy that holds good both within Parliament and outside.
Delaying the tabling of the controversial report till after December 6 has been advocated by the Congress top-brass in the meeting.
