The first event was Ms. Uma Bharati's announcement, made on March 25, that she was quitting the Presidentship of “Bharatiya Janashakti”—the party founded by her. The announcement gave sleepless nights to state BJP leaders. Following her resignation, there was intense speculation that she would re-enter the BJP. The state BJP leaders are apprehensive that Ms. Bharati's re-entry will affect the stability of the party. The party leaders are afraid that once she is back in the BJP and is given some important assignment, she will start taking revenge against all who contributed to her humiliation and ultimately exit from the party.

The state BJP leaders are asking how can Ms. Bharati be allowed to re-enter the party unless and until she apologises for all the abuses that she had hurled upon almost all party leaders, from LK Advani downwards, after her expulsion from the party. She leveled serious allegations against top party leaders, sparing not even Atal Behari Valpayee. Advani and the Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan were the main targets of her ire. She described the BJP as a party of corrupt, opportunist, unprincipled and even anti-national elements. The BJP leaders want that she should first publicly apologise for all the insulting utterances made by her.

The speculations about Ms. Bharati re-entering the BJP were further fuelled by. Govindacharya, the political Guru of Ms. Bharati, resigning from the “Rashtriya Swabhiman Andolan”, an organisation of which he himself was the founder. Govindacharya was the Convener of the organisation. His resignation was announced during the meeting of the organisation at Bhopal.

Observers feel that it would not be easy for the party leadership to re-admit Ms. Bharati. There are clear indications that most of the leaders of the ruling party in Madhya Pradesh are determined to forestall the Sadhvi's re-entry into the BJP.

While the possibility of Ms. Bharati's re-entry into the BJP created internal problems in the ruling BJP, a clutch of decisions by the government adversely affected the party's popularity among the general public. These included the decision to increase the price of Milk, supplied all over the state, by “Sanchi”, a co-operative body controlled indirectly by the state government,. Milk has become dearer by Rs. 2 a litre. Similarly, the rate of monthly water charges for the residents of Bhopal was increased three-fold. The savage hike was made by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation, which is controlled by the BJP. The Mayor of the Corporation is Ms. Krishna Gaur, the daughter-in-law of former chief minister Mr. Babulal Gaur, who now holds the Urban administration portfolio in the Shivraj Singh Chauhan cabinet. Thus, in the public eye, it was the top BJP leadership that was responsible for enhancing the water charges for domestic consumers from Rs. 60 to Rs. 180 per month.

Spontaneous protests broke out in Bhopal over this arbitrary increase in the Water charges. Critics of the BJP point out that by increasing the price of Water and Milk—two very essential commodities—the party had lost the moral right to agitate against Price Rise. The BJP has decided to hold a massive demonstration in New Delhi. Preparations are underway to mobilise people from the state for the demonstration. The party rank and file feels that the twin decisions of the government would make it difficult for them to blame the UPA government for the rising prices.

A section of the state BJP leadership is mounting pressure on the government to withdraw the Milk and Water price hike.

Another decision that has evoked protests from various sections of the society relates to the passage of a bill, which prescribes stringent punishment for terrorism-related crimes. The new law, which resembles the draconian MACOCA, has drawn flak from all non-BJP parties in the state. The opposition members tore-up the copies of the bill and staged a walk-out from the assembly when the bill was put to vote in the House.

Both the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and the Home minister Uma Shankar Gupta defended the government's decision to have a composite law to deal with terrorist and organised crimes. The chief minister said that the government felt there was a need for a tough law to control terrorist activities. He expressed the hope that the Government of India would give its approval to the new law, as it had done in the case of MACOCA.

Observers feel that comparing Madhya Pradesh with Maharashtra vis a vis the need to combat terrorism was unwarranted. There is hardly any significant terrorist or naxal activity in the state. The state was, in the past, infested with the menace of dacoity, which was dealt with successfully with the help of existing laws. Observers suspect that the state BJP knows pretty well that the new law would not get Central approval—just as it happened in the case of a similar Gujarat law.

Another government measure that has not gone down well with the people in general is the decision to raise the salaries and allowances of political functionaries of the government and the MLAs. The bill, which showers massive financial benefits on the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, leader of opposition, Ministers and MLAs, was passed unanimously, within seconds of it being tabled in the House, on the last day of the Budget session. With this move, the MLAs of Madhya Pradesh have become one of the highest-paid law-makers in the country. (IPA)