Advani: Will he or won’t he go?

New Delhi, Oct. 13: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is in a bind ? whether to invite Lal Krishna Advani to its national executive in Chitrakoot or give tradition a miss.

Normally, the BJP president is invited along with the general secretary (organisation) to RSS executives where matters related to Sangh parivar organisations are discussed. Last year, Advani had attended the Hardwar conclave shortly after the BJP’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.

But after the experience in Hardwar, where the VHP stayed away to protest Advani’s presence, exposing the cracks in the “undivided” family, and also because the BJP chief’s relations with the RSS are at an all-time low, the Sangh might just invite Sanjay Joshi, the general secretary (organisation).

RSS spokesman Ram Madhav told reporters today that while Joshi’s participation in the three-day meet from October 21 was “confirmed”, there would be a second representative from the BJP in Chitrakoot. “But we have not been told who he will be,” he said, parrying queries on whether Advani was invited or not.

But a source close to the BJP chief wondered “why on earth” should Advani go to an RSS meet. When it was mentioned that he had in the past, the source shot back: “This time he will not.”

It is believed that vice-president Bal Apte, a favourite of the Sangh’s Maharashtra lobby as Advani’s successor, might fill in for the BJP chief. But this proposal was opposed by Sangh “purists” who felt that a departure from custom might set a wrong precedent.

“If this happens, it will be the first time that the head of a Sangh affiliate will be kept out of the national executive. Advani has agreed to demit office as per the Sangh’s wishes, so it is (RSS chief K.S.) Sudarshan and company who will look petty if they don’t invite the BJP president for personal reasons,” a BJP source said.

VHP chief Ashok Singhal and general secretary Praveen Togadia have already been given the green signal to be in Chitrakoot.

Sources said there were no cast-iron rules on the number of representatives from an organisation, the only cardinal principle being the president must attend.

For instance, when Advani was the president during a previous tenure, Sunder Singh Bhandari and K.N. Govindacharya were called ? apart from Kushabhau Thakre, the general secretary (organisation) ? because of their organisational skills and proximity to the RSS.

This time, however, there is a growing clamour in the Sangh for a full-fledged discussion on Advani’s concluding remarks at the BJP’s Chennai executive on the party’s relations with the RSS.