India's Hindu party hit by sex scandal

NEW DELHI: India's beleaguered main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been dealt another blow after "Operation Duryodhan." This time a scandal involving the alleged sexual high jinks of an avowedly celibate official.

The Hindu nationalist party is holding a five-day meeting to celebrate its 25th anniversary, but the media has instead trumpeted the resignation of a party secretary Sanjay Joshi. Joshi stepped down after a sexually explicit CD allegedly showing him romping with an unidentified woman made the rounds among BJP members and the media.

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Commenting on this the party President, Lal Krishna Advani told, "Keeping in view Joshi's request, he was being relieved of his responsibility till the completion of (a) probe.” Joshi, who is also a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP's hardline Hindu backers, had apparently taken a voluntary vow of celibacy as some full-time RSS workers do.

The sex scandal may also overshadow the official announcement of a new party president to replace Advani, expected to take place after the close of the party meeting on December 30.

A low-key party member, Rajnath Singh, has reportedly been chosen to succeed the hawkish Advani. But it is not clear whether he will able to end the turmoil which has hit the BJP since its shock election defeat by the Congress party in May last year.

Since then the party has become polarized between moderates wanting the party to move to the center, and hardliners who feel a return to the core values of hardline Hindutva (Hinduness) will win more votes.
The divisions came to the fore in June, in the firestorm that surrounded Advani after he praised archrival Pakistan's founder as a "great man" during a trip there.

Analysts said at the time Advani's praise for Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a bid to steer the BJP toward the mainstream and reach out to secular allies. But the attempt backfired spectacularly and the 77-year-old Advani, who spearheaded the ascent of Hindu right-wing politics in India, only succeeded in alienating the BJP's staunchly Hindu allies.