BJP asks Shourie to clarify remarks

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Tuesday night decided to ask party MP Arun Shourie to “clarify” what he meant by his remarks during an interview to NDTV on Monday, which are seen as derogatory to the party and its leadership.

A note to be sent to Mr. Shourie asking for his explanation was being prepared.

The decision followed an informal meeting between Mr. Singh and some party general secretaries and office-bearers at the party office. “We should talk to Mr. Shourie, we must hear him out before taking any hasty step,” an office-bearer, who attended the meeting, said.

“The entire situation in the party was discussed,’ one leader said, while another remarked: “The situation is that many leaders are going around with daggers under their armpits. Who will stab whom and when cannot be said.” The meeting was attended, among others, by general secretaries Ramlal, Thawarchand Gehlot and Vinay Katiyar and vice-president M.A. Naqvi.

One view was that the deteriorating discipline could not be set right by the “danda” (stick) alone. The party should be able to hear out the aggrieved person before taking any action. Separately, RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav indicated that it was for the BJP to sort out the mess and decide what to do. Reports indicated that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was likely to be in Delhi on Tuesday or Wednesday and Mr. Rajnath Singh would go to meet him to apprise him of the developments.

One view of the “go slow” on action against Mr. Shourie was that “he was close to the RSS, the BJP’s “parent” organisation, and, therefore, caution needed to be exercised. Mr. Jaswant Singh, on the other hand, was never an RSS favourite. Yet another reason for the abundant caution exercised by the BJP leadership was “a Shourie outside the BJP may prove to be far more of an embarrassment than a Shourie inside the party,” said a BJP insider.

It has been noted, but without much embarrassment, that Mr. Shourie confessed to being “more affected by Atalji’s [ex-Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee] pain [on being thwarted in his effort to oust Gujarat CM Narendra Modi after the 2002 riots] than what happened in Gujarat.” In short, “Atalji’s pain” was more important than the killing of innocent people. The party, Mr. Shourie said, did not make Mr. Jaswant Singh’s Jinnah comments in his book so much of an issue as his supposed “denigration of Sardar Patel.” This was because an emphasis on Jinnah was likely to reopen Mr. Advani’s Jinnah episode and questions would be asked why Mr. Jaswant Singh got the sack while Mr. Advani continues to sit at the high table.