NEW DELHI, 14 May 2005 — Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sunder Singh Bhandari, the governor of Gujarat during the 2002 communal violence yesterday reiterated that L.K. Advani should quit as the BJP president.
Compounding the BJP’s raging internal woes, Bhandari also added his voice to the growing dissent against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has been widely accused of abetting the sectarian bloodshed.
“Advani should go (as BJP chief). What is the logic of repeating one person over and over again?” Bhandari said a day after criticizing both Modi and Advani in a news magazine interview.
“It is not good for the party. A new person should be given a chance,” he said while saying that Advani should not have taken over as the BJP president and someone younger should have been appointed. “Does the party have no alternative, that people are repeated?”
About Atal Behari Vajpayee, Bhandari was non-committal. “He is the chairman of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) but he does not hold any post in the BJP. My concern is only about the party.”
In another shocking turn, Bhandari also demanded a probe into the Gujarat communal violence, describing it as a result of a grave administrative lapse. “There were definite lacunae in the way the state government did not take action or delayed it. It is a breakdown of the administrative set-up and there should be an inquiry.”
Modi has been widely blamed for letting the situation spiral out of control. Bhandari, who was governor at the time, said yesterday that he may not have spoken out at the time but he knew what was happening was “very wrong” and many lives were lost in the delay in taking action.
“There was no question of talking publicly at the time.” As for his own role, Bhandari said the governor “does not enjoy the powers of the executive. I felt bad. I did not say anything all this time but it was within me. At the time, I did whatever I could by issuing instructions to the state government.”
Meanwhile, the BJP’s new Gujarat President Vajubhai Vala promised to resolve the factionalism in the state unit. “All problems will be solved non-controversially,” the 67-year-old Vala, who is also state finance minister, said.
But with 60 legislators campaigning against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and wanting him removed, Vala’s job would be tough. Earlier this year, the dissenting legislators complained to BJP president L.K. Advani that Modi was being “autocratic” and was “sidelining” them.
Modi survived but was asked to take steps to placate legislators from the rival faction. “It is a question of methodology and not ideology. Nobody (in the party) is opposed to the ideology. We will see to it that no BJP worker remains dissatisfied,” Vala, a legislator from Saurashtra city of Rajkot and five-time minister, said. Though Vala is seen as Modi’s confidante, his moderate image may come handy in his new role.
Vala was once seen as being close to Modi’s rival Keshubhai Patel. But he won Modi’s trust by vacating his Rajkot seat for him in 2001, easing Modi’s first electoral battle.
Sources said Modi’s rivals had not agreed to Vala’s name initially but the announcement was pushed all the same.
