Both Jaswants book and BJPs action lack credibility

After Balraj Madhok, K N Govindacharya, Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh comes the latest oustee from BJP Jaswant Singh. But unlike others who were shown the door for pointing fingers at the partys top leadership, the MP from Darjeeling got the boot for criticizing a Congress leader, who died several decades back. Ironically, as the former BJP leader himself pointed out, it was during the tenure of Sardar Patel that BJPs parent organization RSS was banned for the first time following Mahatma Gandhis assassination. Advani later claimed that Sardar acted under Nehrus pressure, forgetting that it was Iron Man Patel and not the sartorial (Shivraj) Patil who could have been pressurised. It is also ironical that the Kangaroo Court was presided over by Advani, who committed the original sin of calling Jinnah secular.

Singhs expulsion appears to be an exercise in isolation and has little to do with either the partys poll fiasco or a serious introspection. Singh had earned the ire of the Advani camp for questioning the link between Parinaam (poll results) and Puraskar (rewards) indirectly hitting out at the likes of Arun Jaitley, the partys Chief Poll Strategist who was promoted as the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, succeeding Singh.

Singh too has the dubious distinction of not only escorting dreaded terrorists to Kandahar in lieu of the passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight but also making unsubstantiated allegations in his earlier book about a mole in former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Raos office, not to talk about providing opium-laced drink to guests and distributing cash to voters. Thus, both Jaswants book and BJPs action against him lack credibility.

(Same views has been published in the latest issue of 'Sunday Indian')