There is a thin and blurred line separating a tantrum from indiscipline. Ms Uma Bharti, a politician in the garb of a sanyasin, crossed that line when she walked out of a party meeting protesting against the top leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Ever since Ms Bharti was forced to resign as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, she has been voicing her criticism of the party leadership a bit too loudly. Initially, her vitriol was directed at Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, the then party president, but she directed her anger at Mr L.K. Advani as soon as he had taken over the mantle of leadership. Mr Advani has made it abundantly clear that he will not tolerate indiscipline. He has suspended Ms Bharti from the party?s primary membership. Ms Bharti had asked for this and she was probably not surprised by the verdict against her. The BJP is a party known for its internal discipline and Ms Bharti had tried the patience of the party leaders once too many times.

Ms Bharti?s suspension is the sign of a deeper churning going on within the BJP. When the party was on an electoral winning streak and was holding power in New Delhi, voices of dissent within the party were muted. Even the more extreme wings of the sangh parivar accepted some of the deviations of the BJP from the mandate of Hindutva. Electoral defeats and loss of power at the Centre have resulted in vituperative critics coming out of the Hindutva woodwork. Ms Bharti was the most voluble and malignant of these critics. For the first time, the BJP leadership is being forced to face the phenomenon of dissent. Groups and individuals, encouraged at times by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, are attacking the party leadership for abandoning Hindutva in the name of good governance. There are groups within the BJP which argue that Hindutva represents the party?s past and not its future. The encounter between these two trends will determine the character of the BJP in the near future.

But this process of debate and discussion is providing an opportunity to persons of Ms Bharti?s ilk to settle individual scores. Disagreement is becoming dissent, which, in turn, is taking the shape of indiscipline. Mr Advani has acted fast to stop the spread of indiscipline in his party. His action against Ms Bharti will act as a deterrent for those somewhat inclined to raising the flag of rebellion. Ms Bharti is also poised on the brink of expulsion. If she wants to avoid this fate, she will have to answer with care the show-cause notice that has been served to her. She has always been a maverick, but she might discover her own irrelevance when she does not have the institutional structure of a party to absorb her whims and misdemeanours.