BJP resolution skips Hindutva issue

Meeting for an introspective session after the shocking defeat in the Lok Sabha election, the leaders took up for discussion the draft resolution which expressed confidence in the leadership of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and senior leader LK Advani. It noted that the party has grown under the statesmanship of Vajpayee.

Addressing the gathering, Advani asked partymen to take along the Sangh Parivar to widen the party base.

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The resolution also proposed to launch a campaign against the Congress-led UPA government accusing it of soft pedalling the issues of terrorism and infiltration that is posing a grave threat to the country's security and integrity.

Notwithstanding the demand of the members at the executive exhorting the party to get back to aggressive Hindutva, the resolution skipped the core Hindutva issues like Ram Janmabhoomi, abrogation of Article 370 and Uniform Civil Code. The resolution is expected to be adopted without any major changes. If at all, the changes will be minor in nature, highly-placed sources said.

Directing its attack on Sonia Gandhi, the resolution accused the Congress of blemishing the system of governance by creating two power centres in which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh plays second fiddle to "super Prime Minister" Sonia Gandhi.

"For the first time in the country's history, we do not have an elected Prime Minister, but a selected Prime Minister bereft of real authority. The Congress party and its allies are systematically diluting the dignity and honour of the office of the Prime Minister," the four-page draft resolution said.

"The BJP wishes to alert the entire political class in this country that the belittling of the high office of the Prime Minister, and the emergence of an extra-constitutional power Centre in the person of Sonia Gandhi and the new phase of the Congress party's craven surrender, yet again, to dynasticism are ominous developments in our democracy," the resolution said.

The party also expressed its concern over the rise of Communists as the "third power centre" in the ruling establishment. "It is now clear that, although the ruling UPA is numerically led by the Congress party, it is ideologically and programmatically led from outside by CPI(M), which also holds the veto power and the rope to the guillotine."