New Delhi, May 12
The ongoing crisis in the Bharatiya Janata Party deepened further today when former Gujarat Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari caused a serious embarrassment to the party and BJP president L. K. Advani by pointing an accusing finger at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for the break of widespread post-Godhra riots.

In a candid interview to a Hindi weekly published from the Capital, a hard-core leader of the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh, Mr Bhandari, who was the Gujarat Governor at the time of the Godhra violence and subsequent riots, said the four to six hours’ delay in action was a major factor and had brought a “blot” on the organisation.

Coming on the heels of BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan’s article in party organ “BJP Today” in which he had blamed Mr Modi for the negative image of the party, Mr Bhandari’s frank interview is bound to cause ripples in the saffron party.

Stating that the situation would not have worsened if the central leadership had reacted immediately, Mr Bhandari said, “I had only one complaint and that was the government failed to take action on time. Had it had taken timely action, many things would not have happened”.

In an indirect attack on bete noire L. K. Advani, who was instrumental in denying him a chance to lead the BJP, Mr Bhandari said the removal of the Gujarat Chief Minister was one of the ways which could have set the house in order but other options could also have been tapped.

Incidentally, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was favouring the removal of Mr Modi but the then Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Advani, along with some Cabinet Ministers like Mr Arun Jaitley had mounted pressure on the then Prime Minister to change his mind.

In Panjim, where a meeting of the BJP national executive was in session, Mr Vajpayee along with Mr Advani had given Mr Modi a fresh lease of life and decided to retain him as the Gujarat Chief Minister.

He said he was told by the Chief Minister in the morning that action had begun but his emphasis was that the state should have intervened at night itself which was not done.

“The riots were taken lightly and this left a deep scar which needs to be tended to. People would continue to remember Godhra in the same way they recalled the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi which took place 50 years ago”, Mr Bhandari said.

Asked whether there was any way to refurbish the party, Mr Bhandari said, “The party should get rid of people with an image of yes men who did not think of the party’s prosperity and have developed vested interests”. Mr Bhandari said, “There is nothing to worry if some people in the party are agitated over the action. We have an executive committee of 100 members. They yawn, sleep, eat and go away. Now the executive meeting is treated as an outing”.

When his attention was drawn to RSS chief K. Sudarshan’s attack on the functioning of Mr Brajesh Mishra (Principal Secretary to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee), Mr Bhandari said he (Sudarshan) hit at a wrong place and he need not have gone into so many details. “What has come out of it? And this has only weakened Sudarshanji in public”, he said.

“Why talk of Pramod Mahajan? He had also collected crores of rupees for the elections but he maintained account of every paisa. These days nobody knows how much fund is collected and how much spent”, he said in reply to a question.

Asked who were the second-rung leaders capable of running the party in the light of the suggestion made by Mr Sudarshan that both Mr Vajpayee and Mr L.K. Advani should make way for them, Mr Bhandari said he did not know them as they had emerged during the past five or six years during which he did not hold any party post.