Khurana relieved of party post

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, APRIL 28. Mr. Madan Lal Khurana was this evening relieved of his position as vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party for daring to question the thrust of the Vajpayee Government's economic policies. Mr. Khurana was sacked within twenty-four hours after the leakage of his letter (dated April 21) to the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajapyee, in which the senior BJP leader had given vent to his feelings.

Rather than allow Mr. Khurana to get away with a display of open criticism and flouting of party discipline, the Prime Minister got the senior vice-president thrown out of the BJP establishment. The decision to sack Mr. Khurana was taken after confabulations among Mr. Vajpayee, the Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, and the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha. After the caucus at the Prime Minister's House, the party president, Mr. Kushabhau Thakre, who is indisposed and admitted to a local hospital, apparently signed on the dotted line of the dismissal letter.

However, late in the evening, the BJP spin-doctors were trying hard to suggest that it was Mr. Thakre who set the ball rolling as far as Mr. Khurana's dismissal was concerned, and that Mr. Advani merely conveyed to the Prime Minister the strongly-felt views of party managers such as Mr. Jana Krishnamurthi and Mr. Venkaiah Naidu. It was also argued that the sacked Mr. Khurana would neither find sympathy nor support in the BJP for his ``nationalist'' posture.

Later talking to mediapersons at his residence, Mr. Khurana read out the controversial letter of April 21, where he had raised three issues: price hike, the removal of Quantitative Restrictions in the latest Import Policy, and the controversial Sankhya Vahini project.

A totally unfazed Mr. Khurana put the onus on the Prime Minister, who, according to him, was unresponsive to his repeated requests for a private audience, where he could convey his reservations.

Mr. Khurana's criticism of the decision on QRs was a bit close to the bone. In his formulation, the QRs decision raised questions of national sovereignty, a charge that was also levelled by Ms. Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition, in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday last.

What probably prompted a counter- offensive from the Prime Minister was the report that Mr. Khurana was instigating some other BJP members as well as some of the allies to raise the issue of national sovereignty in Parliament next week.

Appropriately stung by Mr. Khurana's criticism, the Prime Minister's political managers got the Ministry of Commerce to reply to his charge: ``Shri Madan Lal Khurana, MP, is reported to have alleged that Quantitative Restrictions on 1,429 items of import from the USA were removed by the Union Government under American pressure. The allegation is baseless and factually correct.''

The Commerce Ministry's two-page press note details the milestones in the matter since India signed the GATT accord. The cut-and-dry citation of facts ends with a declaration: ``The question of acting under pressure, therefore, does not arise.'' However, the Commerce Ministry does not shed any light on Mr. Khurana's reservations on the question of price hike and the Sankhya Vahini.

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