NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is getting increasingly isolated for its aggressive backing of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The opposition yesterday stepped up its campaign to oust Modi, whom it blames for the sectarian violence in the western state that has claimed over 900 lives since February-end. Even the Vajpayee allies which have demanded Modi’s removal refused to budge from their stand.
Vajpayee suffered a further setback as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalitha, who was thought to be inching closer to the ruling central coalition, joined the call for Modi’s dismissal.
Jayalalitha, whose party three weeks ago voted for an anti-terror bill backed by Vajpayee’s party and helped it become law, also demanded that the BJP give up the idea of advancing assembly elections in Gujarat.
The latest thumbs-down announced in Madras yesterday aggravates the troubles Vajpayee’s party brought on its own head by its weekend decision to back Modi.
Even after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the biggest party propping up the Vajpayee government, joined the anti-Modi chorus, Vajpayee said Sunday he would prove his majority despite opposition from three of his allies. Analysts say the confidence stemmed from the likelihood of support from others like Jayalalitha. But Jayalalitha’s offensive puts paid to that. This is the second time in a week that she has crossed Vajpayee’s path. She slammed him last week when the prime minister said New Delhi could consider providing medical treatment in India to Sri Lanka Tamil Tiger leader Anton Balasingham. Although the BJP has been insisting that Naidu would eventually come around, TDP MPs joined the opposition yesterday in shouting slogans against the BJP at the gates of Parliament.
For the third straight day since Parliament reconvened Monday, the opposition blocked proceedings in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, demanding a debate on Modi’s ouster. While the prime minister’s party doesn’t mind a debate, it doesn’t agree to a vote at the end, fearing its own allies might vote against it. The fear seems realistic since three constituents of the ruling coalition — the Trinamool Congress, Lok Janshakti and Janata Dal-United — stayed away from the multiparty coalition’s meeting yesterday.
Several opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party of former Defense Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Janata Dal-Secular later held a rally to denounce the prime minister’s party.
The main opposition Congress party of Sonia Gandhi continued its campaign against Modi, ending a 24-hour sit-in at Rajghat in Delhi.
