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Khurana resigns

George Iype in New Delhi

The anti-Christian violence in many parts of the country claimed its first ministerial victim on Saturday when Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism Minister Madan Lal Khurana resigned from the Vajpayee Cabinet for attacking the Sangh Parivar.

Khurana, who also resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party's national executive, is the first BJP minister to resign from the Vajpayee government for indulging in "party indiscipline."

BJP leaders said Khurana's ouster came about after the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leadership and some BJP leaders strongly objected to a letter he wrote to party president Shashikant 'Kushabhau' Thakre.

Soon after the killing of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Stains and his two sons in Orissa on the night of January 22-23, Khurana shot off the letter to Thakre attacking the 'pseudo-Hindutva' attitude prevailing in the party.

Seeking Thakre's permission to atone for the countrywide anti-minority attacks, Khurana wrote that he was 'shaken by the killing of the missionary.'

'Our heads have bowed in shame,' he said.

But Khurana's letter reached the press before Thakre read it and the enraged BJP boss wrote to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee demanding the minister's ouster from the Cabinet.

'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 the BJP president on Saturday cited Khurana's "anti-party utterances" as the reason for the minister's ouster, party sources said the Sangh Parivar wanted Vajpayee to sack the Delhi leader after the BJP national executive concluded in Bangalore on January 4. Khurana returned from a vacation in the Andaman and Nicobar islands on Friday night.

During the Bangalore national executive, Sangh Parivar organisations like the Bajrang Dal, Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Vishwa Hindu Parishad came in for scathing criticism from Khurana. Defending Vajpayee from his detractors in the party and the Sangh Parivar, Khurana accused these organisations of blocking government decisions and obstructing smooth administration.

"By publicly airing his criticism against the Sangh Parivar, Khurana virtually said we are engaged in a campaign to dislodge Vajpayee," an RSS official told Rediff On The NeT on Saturday.

He said RSS joint general secretary K S Sudershan met the prime minister recently to take strong exception to Khurana's statements against the Sangh Parivar. "By seeking to atone for the attacks against Christians, Khurana tried to implicate the Sangh Parivar in the anti-Christian violence," the RSS leader pointed out.

Khurana, who is considered close to Vajpayee, has often defended the prime minister against the RSS onslaught. But sources disclosed that Vajpayee was left with no option but to accept his resignation as virtually all the Sangh organisations and the BJP leadership pressed for Khurana's immediate ouster.

BJP vice-president Jai Prakash Mathur told Rediff On The NeT that Khurana had to put in his papers "for airing his views and grievances in public." "Khurana is a senior leader and a Cabinet minister holding important portfolios. The party leadership felt uncomfortable about some of his statements," Mathur said.

BJP officials said Khurana, being a senior leader, was not made to suffer the ignominy of disciplinary action. He was asked by Thakre and Vajpayee to voluntarily resign from the Cabinet and the national executive.

Many in the party believe Khurana's resignation has exposed the tussle for supremacy between the hardliners and liberals within the BJP on a number of issues -- including the minority agenda and the Vajpayee government's economic policies.

Khurana's exit has also brought in more problems for the prime minister. Vajpayee is expected to expand his Cabinet soon and a representative of Delhi will now have to be inducted in the council of ministers in Khurana's place.

The prime minister will find it difficult to choose between the two contenders -- Sahib Singh Verma, who was promised a Cabinet ministership when he resigned as Delhi chief minister last October and Sushma Swaraj, who resigned as Cabinet minister to become the Union territory's CM for the November assembly election.

Civil Aviation Minister Ananth Kumar and Power Minister P Ranga Kumaramangalam have been given the portfolios of tourism and parliamentary affairs respectively.

ALSO SEE:
Khurana accuses Thakre of suffocating him

EARLIER REPORT:
Thakre wants Khurana sacked

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