Seeking to pre-empt any dissident attack on himself at the party's three-day National Executive meeting which began in Chennai on Friday, beleaguered Bharatiya Janata Party President L K Advani conceded that indiscipline in the party has distressed its entire support base and dissent cannot be allowed to degenerate into a free-for-all.
Advani, who was recently asked by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to step down in the wake of the Jinnah controversy, also sought to placate the Sangh fountainhead in his presidential speech, recalling the 'symbiotic relationship' between the two organisations.
Trying to win back its core 'Hindutva' constituency, Advani reiterated the party's commitment to the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya and charged the Congress with disregarding Hindu sentiments.
In an apparent attempt to deflect public attention from the dissidence within BJP, the party chief also attacked the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, terming Manmohan Singh as the 'weakest prime minister in the country's history', and criticising its foreign policy, dependance on the Left and national security issues.
On a day when former party president Bangaru Laxman stressed on the need for the party leadership to take everyone along, Advani asked all party units to ensure that internal democracy and discipline went hand-in-hand.
"Debate and discussions are signs of vibrancy of any democratic organisation. There can be divergent views on issues and it is only proper that these be debated at appropriate forums. Tolerance of dissent - essence of inner party democracy - however, cannot be allowed to degenerate into a free-for-all," he said.
Seeking to dispel certain controversies 'that have figured in the media and caused some confusion among sections of party workers and sympathisers', Advani said internal democracy has been the party's hallmark since the days of Jansangh and 'that must continue'.
"But our party has long been synonymous also with discipline. Recent cases of indiscipline have caused deep distress to all of us and to our entire support base," he said.
Referring to the 'symbiotic relationship' between the Jansangh and RSS and, later, the BJP and RSS, he said 'both the organisations have benefitted immensely from this relationship and together they have succeeded.'
Referring to his controversial visit to Pakistan, which had caused an upheaval in the party, Advani said his visit was aimed at removing any impression people and leaders of that country might be having that people within BJP were always opposed to Pakistan.
"It does not mean that we agreed with the partition. The logic of history and the compulsions of geography commend us to work with Pakistan as a sovereign country and as a neighbour," he said.
The BJP chief also recalled his inaugurating the restoration work at the Katasraj temple in Pakistan and said, "This is a very important development, since it is a recognition by Pakistan of its pre-Islamic past which is a common heritage between the two countries."
Claiming that the elite and growing middle-class in that country have begun to have doubts over its support to Jehadi-terror mongers and forced Islamisation, he said, "It is in our interest, as much as in the interest of civil society the worldover, that we encourage those who begin to question Jehadism."
Making a scathing attack on what he called 'the sinister designs of the Left', Advani said, 'their job is made easier by the fact that we have a prime minister who has little authority even within his own party.'
"The Left arm-twists him sometimes directly and sometimes through his party's supreme being. It is this danger to the national interest posed by this scenario that made me refer to Manmohan Singh as the weakest Prime Minister in the country's history."
"There is an open, visible disconnect between the de jure and de facto power centres. Not even when Chandrasekhar government of six months was dependent on Congress support did so weak a Prime Minister preside over such chaos," Advani said adding that it was not in national interest.
Referring to the Ram temple issue, Advani said, "Sri Ram lives in the heart of every Indian. He is a symbol of our cultural identity and embodiment of India's national ethos. The Bharatiya Janata Party remains committed to the construction of an appropriate temple at his birth place once the dispute over the site is resolved by mutual agreement or a court judgement."
On the uniform civil code issue, he said BJP has consistently stood for its formulation. "We understand political difficulties in doing so at this point of time in view of absence of a national consensus. "However, efforts at securing such a consensus must be part of the official policy."
(With inputs from PTI)