Unfriendly Overseas BJP

BJP president Venkaiah Naidu says there is a growing view that instead of allowing the overseas groups to exist as autonomous bodies, the BJP must exercise greater control, perhaps even nominating its heads or important office-bearers. "So far, these have been independent groups whose members claim loyalty to us. Now there’s a view that we must play a more direct role in their activities," he says.

The rethink has been triggered by the bitter quarrels in the OFBJP’s US chapter, a huge funding source. It even prompted the Sangh to dispatch leader Madan Das Devi on a firefighting mission there. Sources say he told OFBJP members at a meeting in Pennsylvania last month that the BJP intends to appoint a US coordinator. Adds rss spokesperson Ram Madhav, "There is no question of the rss disbanding a BJP body but there is a view they should behave responsibly."

Many say the cause of the problem is India’s ambassador-at-large for NRIs and PIOs, Dr Bhishma K. Agnihotri. Dr Mukund Mody, the OFBJP’s founding president in the US, told Outlook, "Dr Agnihotri has become a burden to the party and a cause of shame to the community. It’s unfortunate that one person has managed to spoil the brotherhood we were once so proud of." Similar sentiments were expressed in a letter some Sangh members in the US sent to Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee following his visit to New York in September.

Agnihotri has been accused of manipulating the succession of Subrahmanyam Vemuri, a Chicago-based engineer, as the organisation’s president. In a statement issued on behalf of outgoing President Dr Dinesh Agarwal last September, Rajesh Shukla, vice-president (New York and New Jersey), said the OFBJP’s national executive committee had "proposed, recommended and approved" Vemuri’s candidature.

But the rival Mody faction alleges that the national executive committee meet wasn’t attended by all members and that Vemuri does not enjoy majority support. This faction further claims that Vemuri has been appointed largely because Agnihotri wants to retain control over Sangh activities in the US.

Vemuri, however, claims support of the national executive. "That does not mean all 100 per cent is backing me," he concedes. Parivar observers in the US see some truth in Mody’s allegations. But as a man, they point out, Agnihotri—appointed to the job at the behest of Vajpayee and L.K. Advani—is in all probability carrying out instructions from New Delhi and not acting on his own.

When Jana Krishnamurthy was BJP president, he had assured OFBJP leaders that he would send a party leader to the US to help sort out the dispute. "We were waiting for this when suddenly they came up with Vemuri’s appointment," he told Outlook. The Mody faction also claims that Madan Das Devi had carried a one-line message to the US: the BJP no longer recognises the OFBJP’s current leadership.

The Vemuri camp brushes aside such suggestions, asserting the appointment of a coordinator would make no difference to his role as president. Agnihotri declined to speak to Outlook, claiming he had nothing to do with the internal politics of the OFBJP.

A.K. Sen and Saba Naqvi Bhaumik