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Thakre wants Khurana sacked

George Iype in New Delhi

Even as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee began a damage control exercise over the attacks against Christians, the anti-minority campaign allegedly unleashed by fringe elements of the Sangh Parivar is likely to claim its first victim: Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism Minister Madan Lal Khurana.

Bharatiya Janata Party president Shashikant 'Kushabhau' Thakre has asked the prime minister to sack Khurana from the Cabinet for indulging in party indiscipline.

But forced by the criticism from its coalition partners and Opposition parties, the government on Thursday instituted a judicial enquiry into the murder of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Stains and his two sons in Orissa last Friday-Saturday.

The decision to order a Supreme Court judge to enquire into the Stains murder was taken after a three-member ministerial team comprising Defence Minister George Fernandes, Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and Steel Minister Naveen Patnaik submitted a report to the prime minister.

Explaining the reasons for the judicial enquiry, Union Home Minister Lal Kishinchand Advani on Thursday admitted that the murder of the missionary and his two sons has far reaching consequences because the victims were Australian nationals.

But BJP sources disclosed that Khurana may become the first victim of the month-long campaign against minorities.

BJP president Thakre has taken strong exception to a statement from Khurana this week in which the minister attacked the party's 'pseudo-Hindutva' attitude. Soon after the Australian missionary's killing, Khurana wrote to Thakre seeking permission to atone for the anti-minority actions as a disciplined member of the party.

Khurana's letter reached the press before Thakre read it and the enraged BJP boss reportedly termed it as the highest form of indiscipline, party leaders said.

'I have been a RSS worker for the past 54 years, and an activist of the Jan Sangh and the BJP from its inception. I consider Hindutva to be nationalism. Hindutva is a manifestation of culturalism. Hindutva for me has been total dedication to the nation. The meaning of pseudo-Hindutva for some could be destroying cinema halls, digging up cricket pitches or setting ablaze churches, but not that Hindutva which I believe in,' Khurana wrote in his letter to Thakre.

While Khurana did not indicate what mode of repentance he wants to adopt, Thakre is learned to have written to the prime minister, asking him to drop the senior minister from the Cabinet on grounds of party indiscipline.

When the prime minister and the party leadership have become the target of Opposition attack, Thakre felt Khurana's outburst against the Sangh Parivar only helped produce fissures in the BJP coalition.

"By openly accusing the Sangh Parivar of indulging in a campaign against the Vajpayee government, Khurana has exceeded the limits of party discipline," a BJP official told Rediff On The NeT.

Interestingly, he said, Khurana's letter reached Thakre some days after the party president read about it in the newspapers.

The prime minister's response on Thakre's demand is not yet known.

Khurana, a former Delhi chief minister, came up the BJP ranks through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Lately, he has been highly critical of the RSS. During the party's national executive in Bangalore earlier this month, the minister criticised the Sangh Parivar for attacking the Vajpayee government's economic policies.

Many BJP leaders believe Khurana has been upping the ante against the Sangh Parivar because he holds the RSS leaders responsible for blocking his re-entry as Delhi chief minister last October before the assembly election in the capital.

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