The RSS stamp was unmistakable in new BJP president Nitin Gadkari?s first press conference held at the party headquarters in the capital on Thursday, even as he tried to package and project himself as an outsider in Delhi?s politics. The BJP chief topped up his one-hour-long press conference with a promise to reach out to the non-BJP voter?belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and the minority community.
In a party struggling to fight the growing RSS influence?Orissa and Rajasthan being the latest examples?Gadkari left noone in any doubt over where his own sympathies lay. To a question on whether he agreed with LK Advani?s by-now-famous 2005 Chennai speech (wherein he had said that the impression that the RSS micromanaged the day-to-day affairs of the BJP was not good for either of the two outfits), a defiant Gadkari claimed that no one would say that the RSS interfered in the functioning of the BJP.
?During my stint as Maharashtra BJP president, not once was I instructed by the RSS,? he said. ?The party and the philosophy are most important (as compared to the self). Sangh ka vichar hamare jeevan ki nishtha hai (the Sangh philosophy is a question of life-long commitment),? he said. The promise to strengthen the NDA was dismissed in a sentence by the Maharashtra leader, although the text of his statement had one paragraph on NDA.
Claiming he had ?nothing to lose? and indicating that he would not be daunted by BJP biggies in running the party, Gadkari used his image of an outsider in Delhi politics to the hilt. ?I don?t know the Delhi roads or Delhi?s weather, but I expect support from everyone,? he said.
The BJP president vowed to check the ?culture of sycophancy? in the party and added that the issue of indiscipline would be dealt with seriously. ?We need to understand the spirit behind the term discipline. Indiscipline is not a subject for discussion but for execution. No indiscipline will be tolerated,? he said.
Agreeing that the ?crisis of credibility? in politics was a huge problem, the BJP president said that contesting an election could not be the sole objective of a political party. In consonance with the RSS, he also spoke about the ill effects of globalisation.
Invoking Gandhi?s principle of trusteeship, he called for a paradigm shift in expanding the canvas of political parties. He said that under his leadership, the Maharashtra BJP had adopted 500 families affected by farmers? suicides in the state.