NEW DELHI, 25 October — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Hindu nationalist party and Hindu hard-liners agreed yesterday to avoid criticizing each other to head off a damaging rift, a party official said.
"We will try to understand each other’s problems and avoid criticism (of each other)," Venkaiah Naidu, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said after talks with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological parent.
In the meeting Vajpayee also promised to establish contact with Hindu nationalist affiliates who have been opposing his economic reforms.
Though senior leaders of the BJP and the RSS maintained that the meeting featured only a "general discussion on larger issues affecting the nation," it was learned that the RSS struck a small bargain by being promised a greater say in government policy in exchange for a rapprochement.
"We have decided to meet informally like this from time to time to discuss larger issues of national interest," Naidu told reporters after the meeting, which lasted nearly three hours and was held at the prime minister’s 7 Race Course Road official residence.
Naidu said "a wide gamut of issues" including economic policies, national security, cross-border terrorism, and issues of local interest were discussed.
Vajpayee and other BJP leaders and the RSS had discussed "general issues confronting the nation such as national security", Naidu told reporters.
The RSS, along with leaders of the radical Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an affiliate of Vajpayee’s BJP, have strongly criticized his ruling coalition in recent weeks. The RSS has opposed further opening of the economy to foreign investors and selling strategic stakes in state firms, saying the moves would create private sector monopolies. "The government should resolve the issues confronting the nation through consensus," RSS leader Madan Das Devi told reporters.
The VHP, leading a divisive campaign to build a Hindu temple on the site of a razed mosque, wants the government to hand over the disputed site even though the issue is before the courts.
The group has also criticized senior Vajpayee aides over the temple issue, which triggered Hindu-Muslim riots across the country in 1992 after Hindu mobs pulled down the mosque.
Vajpayee’s coalition is committed to economic reform, including privatization. But the BJP has put some of its Hindu revivalist policies, including its backing of the temple, on the backburner to maintain support from its secular allies.
Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and senior RSS leaders K.S. Sudershan, H.V. Sheshadri and Madan Das Devi were present in the meeting. It was the first major engagement this week for Vajpayee, who is recovering from a viral infection.
Asked whether Sangh affiliate VHP’s attack on the government and the prime minister’s office had been discussed, Naidu replied: "We discussed various issues concerning the country. No specific organization or issue was discussed."
RSS General Secretary Madan Das Devi added: "There were discussions about national issues, people’s expectations, the government’s performance in three years and the future policies with regard to the interests of the people and the need for a general consensus."
The BJP’s assurances of taking the views of the RSS and other affiliated outfits into account in a bid to stem criticism is likely to have an effect on economic reforms, especially divestment of public sector units and foreign investment.
In the last few months, Vajpayee has been facing unrelenting criticism from Hindu hard-liners in the BJP and also from front organizations of the RSS.
The VHP, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh have gone hammer and tongs against government’s economic reforms, deeply embarrassing Vajpayee.
The last such meeting took place in April, against the backdrop of sectarian bloodshed in Gujarat triggered by the killing of train passengers in Godhra in February.
