NEW DELHI, June 11, 2005: It was neither a modified draft nor a forceful intervention by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, claims this article in The Hindu, that resolved the crisis in the BJP triggered off by party President L. K. Advani’s resignation. It was good old Vaastu Shastra that did the trick, if party insiders are to be believed. The Vaastu Shastras are the Hindu scriptures covering temple construction, city planning and home building. Their advice extends all the way to how to arrange meeting rooms, like the Chinese fung shui.
Frustrated over the series of “unfortunate developments” in the party, managers were on the lookout for a panacea to the ills plaguing the party when they hit upon the ancient science of creating harmony between house and environment. Vaastu experts scanned the sprawling 11, Ashoka Road headquarters of the party and found the problem in its main hall where crucial meetings of the party as also its daily briefings are held, sources said. They found that at all party meetings, particularly the controversial ones, the seating arrangements in the hall were such that senior leaders sat facing the south while office bearers sat facing the north which they felt was a “conflicting position.”
Hence, at yesterday’s crucial meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board, office-bearers and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States called to discuss Advani’s resignation, the senior leaders were made to sit facing the East while the office bearers were made to sit facing the North. Party officials said they were forced to make the change yesterday after the deliberations of the Tuesday’s meeting of the Parliamentary Board, held with the old seating arrangement, failed to deliver the goods with Advani sticking to his resignation. Interestingly, the changes were not known to most of the leaders, including Advani.
When mediapersons asked party Vice-President and headquarters in-charge Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, about the changes, he merely said it was meant to provide more space to them though on the contrary, the new arrangements only further reduced the space in the hall. To a question why the party leaders were kept in the dark about the new seating arrangements, a BJP official said, “We did not want to take the risk. If the meeting had failed, we could have been shown the door.” However, with the episode ending on a happy note, the officials are glad that they made the changes and intend to continue with the new seating arrangements for their future meetings also.