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The Rediff Interview/ J P Mathur

'Our party does not needlessly force a confrontation. Action is taken when it is called for'

The normally-affable BJP vice-president J P Mathur is uncharacteristically taciturn. He has withdrawn into a shell soon after he was made chairman of the party's disciplinary action committee to look into the rebellion by the ousted Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh. He politely discourages all queries from reporters on Uttar Pradesh politics, especially about what the high command would do with the rebel leader. "No questions on Uttar Pradesh and Kalyan Singh, please, I cannot comment because I am the chairman of the disciplinary action committee," he points out.

But persistent reporters continue to hang outside Mathur's office in the BJP's Ashoka Road headquarters where, party office-bearers said, the rebel leader's supporters are reportedly staying on to gauge the mood of the central leadership. Persecution complex? Certainly not, the office-bearers whisper, the ousted chief minister's followers are trying to read the high command's mind in an apparent bid to outfox it on the tricky issue.

The number of the reporters trying to corner Mathur has suddenly grown and he leaves the room. Scribes accost him to the gate. "I am going out for lunch," he says, pointing to the adjacent bungalow which is his official residence. Most reporters give up, but this reporter tells him he has a few questions not on Uttar Pradesh politics but on the issue of discipline in the BJP. Make sure Uttar Pradesh does not crop up," Mathur warns, before the interview to Tara Shankar Sahay.

How does your party intend to tackle indiscipline within it since it is faced with a tricky situation concerning a former chief minister?

We are not facing any tricky situation. If at all anybody is facing it, it is the other party. Discipline means inculcating a sense of responsibility. It is normally self-imposed. If you hold a position of responsibility, you have got to be aware of the dos and don'ts. The basic thing is, if the party entrusts you with position and power, you have got to be answerable. You cannot think you are indispensable and that you can take many things for granted.

That's why we have said that if you violate the Lakshman Rekha (the forbidden line), you better do some explanation and you better do it fast. Indiscipline here is repeated flouting of the party's rules and regulation and that too in an extremely unpleasant manner against a person no less than Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The other day you said that indiscipline depends on individual cases . Please explain.

Let's suppose, if a party member is pulled up for indiscipline, he is asked to give an explanation. Normally, our leadership does not believe in confrontation but reconciliation whereby things are sorted out in an amicable manner. But when the topmost leader of the party is held in contempt and distaste, with all kinds of serious allegations levelled against him without an iota of truth, then the matter is serious and cognisance is taken of by the high command.

But I want to clarify that our party is fair in its approach on disciplinary issues and the culprits have to bear the consequences according to the enormity of their errors of omission and commission.

Former Union ministers and Lok Sabha MPs Sahib Singh Verma and Madal Lal Khurana have given vent to their feeling on being omitted from the Union cabinet. Will their rumblings invite disciplinary measures?

I would not term their utterances as rumblings. They had their grievances and we heard them out. Khurana said some things earlier but he eventually reconciled and things were sorted out in an amicable manner. Similarly, Verma might have had some things to speak of but he too realised that things had to be sorted out within the party. They continue to be our representatives in the Lok Sabha and that is a good thing.

The recent secret mission by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Dinanath Mishra and senior journalist Balbir Punj to Lucknow to mend faces with Kalyan Singh has triggered off speculation within your party circles. Is the BJP leadership having second thoughts about Kalyan Singh's expulsion from the party?

No comments.

But you do agree that Mishra and Punj visited Lucknow to meet Kalyan Singh after he was served a showcause notice?

I too have read newspaper reports in this context .

If the BJP central leadership sends two emissaries to Kalyan Singh, surely it means it is keen to make up with the ousted chief minister who has already thumbed his nose at the prime minister?

I told you, I have only read newspaper reports about these so-called emissaries. I also told you that our party does not needlessly force a confrontation. Action is taken when it is called for.

How will you describe your party general secretary K N Govindacharya's sudden recent visit to Bihar? Did he go there to prevent any desertion from the Bihar unit following the show-cause to Kalyan Singh?

Govindacharya is a senior party leader, he can go anywhere he likes, why are you people so curious? The BJP unit in Bihar is politically strong and it has no cause for worry over whatever happens elsewhere.

The Rediff Interviews

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