Given Nagpur's proclivity to remote-control BJP, there is no guarantee ghost of Joshi is laid to rest
Sanjay Joshi has become the recurrent bad dream for theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Much as the party leadership tries to get rid ofit, the nightmare returns with renewed vigour to shake and stupefy the partyand its cadre at regular intervals.
The former general secretary resigned from the executivejust when the BJP’s executive meeting was about to begin. Few know that hisinduction into the executive was as mysterious as is his exit. In 2005, Joshiwas the all-powerful general secretary of the organization and called the shotsin the party due to his proximity to the RSS. He played a crucial role in orchestratingan attack on LK Advani following his remarks on Jinnah in Pakistan.
Joshi succeeded in his game plan until he met his nemesis inNarendra Modi. His attempt to engineer revolt within Gujarat’s BJP waseffectively foiled by Modi. At the same time, a mysterious CD which showedJoshi in a compromising position started circulating the media houses. Giventhe moral yardsticks set for an RSS pracharak, celibacy is sine qua non. Joshi,accused of violating this code, was removed as Pracharak by the RSS apparatchiks.As a corollary, he lost his position of the general secretary.
That was stage one. The next one was quite virulent. A groupof senior RSS leaders and BJP leadership made a determined attempt to restoreJoshi’s position and dignity within the party. Then party president RajnathSingh played a crucial role in his rehabilitation by getting a probe done onthe CD episode by the Madhya Pradesh police. MP Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChauhan ensured that Joshi is given a clean chit. Joshi was rehabilitated onceagain as the party’s general secretary.
Within six months, he was mysteriously sacked amid rumoursthat yet another CD found its way to the RSS headquarters, where Joshi’s sexualindiscretions were found to be unacceptable. By normal standards, Joshi wouldhave faded away from the politics as much (and quickly) as from the SanghParivar’s memory. But Joshi’s apparition stayed in the Sangh Parivar and evenmanifested itself at times. In 2007 Gujarat elections, he tried to square offwith Modi by helping rebels and at times even the Congress to cut the strongman to size. But Modi emerged stronger and the Sanjay Joshi phenomenon was keptin check until the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
In 2010, Joshi bounced back with the blessings of new BJPchief Nitin Gadkari and his mentor, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. His induction intothe party’s decision-making body was a sleight of hand manoeuvred by Gadkari,which irked Modi. By all indications, it was seen as an overt attempt to flexmuscles against Modi and marginalise him within the party. Significantly,Gadkari’s game plan was believed to have a tacit endorsement of the RSS chief.Top BJP leaders admit that Modi was so much enraged over this indiscretion.
Disregarding Modi’s sulk, Gadkari assigned Joshi the task ofmanaging UP elections, a crucial assignment in the RSS’s scheme of things. Therealisation that Joshi bungled the UP polls dawned on the Sangh Parivar onlyafter the results saw further marginalisation of the party. The UP results havegrossly undermined the influence of Gadkari and his mentors in the RSS.
However, given the RSS’s proclivity to remote-control theBJP, Gadkari’s second term is a foregone conclusion. The Sangh Parivar’sbiggest worry, however, was that the party’s executive sans the party’s mostcharismatic leader would deprive Gadkari’s anointment for second term alegitimacy. In such a scenario, Sanjay Joshi was found to be expendable for thetime being though he is bound to haunt the Sangh Parivar which relishesnightmares more than the reality.
