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Vajpayee defends Advani’s remarks about Jinnah
Kulu-Prini, June 7 Talking to mediapersons at Bhuntar airport before leaving for New Delhi after a 12-day summer sojourn at Prini near Manali, Mr. Vajpayee said that Mr Jinnah fought for country’s freedom and wanted to found a nation where people of all religions could live. “Even the then Congress leader and poetess Ms Sarojini Naidu praised Mr Jinnah”, he said, referring to Mr LK Advani’s statement in Karachi and then at New Delhi yesterday, when Mr Advani came back from what Mr Vajpayee called as “a successful private visit to Pakistan”. Supporting Mr LK Advani’s change of Hindutva stance on secularism, Mr Vajpayee said that Mr Jinnah was a nationalist, who wanted a nation based on all religions, but his other colleagues then opposed that. “Pakistan is an Islamic country today”, he added. Asked about the VHP and the RSS leaders’ statements calling Mr Advani as a “traitor” Mr Vajpayee asserted that every body was free in a democracy to express one’s opinion. “But one should not mind what one speaks”, he added. Mr Vajpayee said that India and Pakistan had improved their bilateral relations in which he had also contributed as head of the NDA government “Now both countries should come together and oppose those who are trying to spoil the relations”, he urged. Mr Vajpayee said, “My era was not started, then there was no question of the end of it”, replying a query on whether his era was over. Mr Vajpayee sent confusing signals when he added that his ‘yug’ or age was over and somebody would be there to take charge of the next government, he replied to a query on him whether he would become Prime Minister in case the NDA comes to power in the next elections as his Prini residents had wished him to be. Re-affirming his commitment to expedite work on the 8.8 km long Rohtang tunnel Mr Vajpayee said that he would take up the matter with the government in Delhi. “The charm of Manali is luring. He took up development of Manali with him”, he said referring to his meeting with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh at Prini on May 5. During his 12-day stay at Prini Mr. Vajpayee moved out from his residence three times and interacted with the local people at his residence only. He also chaired the state BJP’s executive committee meeting last week. Mr Maheshwar Singh, former Mandi BJP MP, Mr. Chander Sen, BJP general secretary and other BJP leaders were present at the airport to bid him farewell to Delhi today.  |
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Spotlight THE numbing news in the forenoon that BJP President L.K. Advani had desired being relieved as the party chief caught most of the BJP leadership off guard. Once the flash was on the news channels, there was a beeline to Advani’s residence urging him not to ditch the boat battling rough weather within and without. Yet few of the second rung leaders of the BJP eyeing the party organisation chief’s post came out openly against the Sangh Parivar which was waging a virtual war against Advani. If there was any last-minute support, it came from Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he stated at Bhunter airport that he endorsed Advani’s statement on Mohammad Ali Jinnah and charged the media with misinterpreting the same. There was, however, one leader seeking to take up cudgels against VHP’s Praveen Togadia who seemed to be the main villain. Former Union Minister Sahib Singh Verma demanded that the VHP should take action against Togadia’s acidic remarks against Advani.
**** It was a virtual merry go round for the BJP leaders with L.K. Advani refusing to retract the statement made in Pakistan or consider their pleas for reconsidering his decision to resign as the party President. With Advani refusing to budge, the leaders shuttled between the residences of party Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu and Advani’s on the tree lined Prithviraj Road. No sooner had former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee returned to Delhi from Manali after a holiday, they went in droves to his residence urging him to intervene and end the crisis.
**** Advani’s residence was thronged by mediapersons both from the print and audio visual world throughout the day. Most TV news networks’ OB vans were parked outside his residence with reporters milling around and crowding around any leader who emerged from Advani’s residence. It was the same question time and again if Advani had relented in withdrawing his resignation letter. The faces were grim which told an entirely different story. At the same time there were the busybodies from the Sangh Parivar seeking to impress upon the media assemblage that anyone at the helm of BJP affairs cannot digress from the Hindutva agenda. |
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Advani’s calculated gambit comes unstuck New Delhi, June 7 It is in this context that Mr Advani’s letter urging that he be relieved of his post as BJP President assumes significance and created widespread ripples with the VHP calling him a traitor coupled with a studied silence within the party organisation. The fissures in the party have widened inexorably and while the VHP wants Mr Advani to make his exit, the RSS has been somewhat subdued with spokesman Ram Madhav insisting that Mr Advani’s continuance or otherwise as the BJP President is in internal matter of the party. At the same time Mr Madhav was categoric that the RSS desired a retractment of Mr Advani’s observations about Jinnah. On his part, Mr Advani has noted in his resignation letter to BJP General Secretary Sanjay Joshi that “I have not done and said anything in Pakistan that I need to review.” In the prevailing circumstances, Mr Advani is unwilling to eat his words as demanded by the Sangh Parivar. In a desperate attempt, former Union Minister Sahib Singh Verma lashed out at VHP’s Praveen Togadia for his no-holds barred and harsh criticism of Mr Advani. He demanded that the VHP should take action against him. All this and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s endorsement of Mr Advani’s statement at Bhunter airport before emplaning for the Capital has come rather late in the day. The RSS and the VHP have been demanding that a new generation leadership should take over the reins of the BJP with the ageing Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani hanging up their boots. Despite Mr Advani’s endeavour in Pakistan to shed his hawkish image, a section of partymen is hoping that his stance on secularism will make him and the BJP more acceptable to the minorities which seems to have backfired at least in states like Bihar where the minority community is unwilling to accept Jinnah as a secular leader. Sources said there are several reasons compelling Mr Advani to take the shocking step of giving up the post of BJP President. Expectedly, multipronged efforts were on throughout the day so that the former Deputy Prime Minister should withdraws his letter. The Sangh Parivar has consistently charged Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani of trying to move away from the Hindutva plank which had helped the BJP come to power on Raisina Hill in the first instance. They maintain that diluting the Hindutva ideology will cause
irretrievable damage to the BJP as evidenced in the general elections and subsequent elections to several state assemblies barring Rajasthan and Gujarat. The charge against Mr Advani is that he has failed to knit the party together or make his mark ever since the UPA came to power. The strategist in Mr Advani is acutely aware that the time at his disposal is short and his hawkish image has kept him away from the coveted post of being the country’s chief executive. Sources said Mr Advani’s change of stand on ideological issues was aimed at making him a more acceptable leader in the prevailing era of coalition politics but that seems to have taken a severe beating. |
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