Leader of Opposition L.K Advani has chosen Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley to initiate debate when the Parliament will take up the Liberhan panel report on the Babri mosque demolition.
There is a scramble among BJP members to speak to impress the party’s ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
The Members of Parliament see the decision as a sign of assertiveness Advani’s part brought on by the leak and subsequent tabling of the Liberhan report in the House. The controversy over the report seems to have eased the RSS pressure on Advani to quit as the Leader of Opposition.
“There is a lot of jostling to speak on the issue as the Sangh will be closely monitor who’ll defend them the best against the report, which has indicted the entire RSS,” said a party leader, who didn’t wish to be named.
Swaraj and Jaitley are among the leaders derisively referred to as the “Delhi Four” by Advani’s detractors. The other two are Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar.
The four were kept out by the RSS from succeeding Rajnath Singh as the BJP chief.
{{/usCountry}}The four were kept out by the RSS from succeeding Rajnath Singh as the BJP chief.
{{/usCountry}}With the RSS saying it was not against the four, the tension between senior party leaders and the Sangh eased over its preference for Maharashtra unit chief Nitin Gadkari as the next party chief.
Advani had also directed Swaraj to push for Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s resignation for the report being leaked to media before being tabled in Parliament.