New Delhi, June 28
The Bharatiya Janata Party today divested party’s former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha of party’s official spokesmanship, sending a strong signal to other leaders that indiscipline was not going to be tolerated.
Though the party waited for a while to take action against Mr Sinha for his criticism of BJP President L.K. Advani on the Jinnah controversy, lest it appeared vindictive, but now the BJP has chosen to remove him from the post of the party spokesman and not initiate any disciplinary action against him.
Interestingly, the party overlooked Mr Sinha’s comments when he recently created a flutter by his criticism of Mr Advani. But when he attacked the party government in Jharkhand Mr Advani sacked him as BJP spokesman, which was described by party general secretary Arun Jaitley as mere “reconstitution of the panel of spokespersons”.
“The panel of spokespersons has been reconstituted by Mr Advani. Ms Sushma Swaraj and Mr Arun Jaitley will be the two spokespersons,” Mr Jaitley said.
Mr Manvendra Singh and Mr Prakash Javdekar will be the two additional spokespersons.
After his attack on Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda, accusing him of corruption and extravagance, the party asked Mr Sinha not to air his views in public. But he maintained that he had expressed his opinion in the interest of the people of the state.
The decision to remove Mr Sinha was taken yesterday at a meeting of party general secretaries, chaired by Mr Advani.
The BJP felt that it was inappropriate for Mr Sinha to continue as a spokesman even as he continued to attack the party leadership and its governments, party sources said.
When asked about reasons for Mr Sinha’s removal, Mr Jaitley said, “It is the prerogative of the party President as to what responsibility is given to whom.”
As to what responsibility Mr Sinha will hold now, Mr Jaitley said, “He is a Rajya Sabha member and a member of the party’s national executive.”
