With the crucial land acquisition bill caught in a Parliament logjam, the BJP on Monday communicated to the top RSS leadership that it was open to addressing more concerns – both within and outside the Parivar – to make its reformist move see the light of day.
In a more than three-hour brainstorming session with senior ministers and BJP chief Amit Shah, senior RSS functionaries are learnt to have advised the ruling party and government to address the “image problem” and focus on increasing samvad (communication) about government initiatives.
“RSS leaders agreed that the government has taken some reformist and welfare decisions, but flagged that there is a communication and image problem, particularly on the land bill, that it needs to address,” a source privy to the discussion told HT.
Apart from Shah, the meeting was also attended by party general secretaries Ram Lal and Ram Madhav, besides union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari. From the RSS side, the Sangh's second-in-command and general secretary Suresh Bhayyaji Joshi, were also present.
The routine coordination meeting comes ahead of the BJP’s national executive meeting in Bangalore next month and also the first anniversary of the Narendra Modi government in May.
The routine coordination meeting comes ahead of the BJP’s national executive meeting in Bangalore next month and also the first anniversary of the Narendra Modi government in May.
Government representatives in the meeting listed out the amendments the government has made and promised to be more accommodative to create a consensus on the matter.
The government has already started a damage control exercise with Prime Minister holding a Man Ki Baat on this issue. But, there are concerns within the BJP with the way Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and other opposition parties have gone combative about the issue.