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Jaswant gets candid New Delhi, August 22 The June 9 letter Singh had written to the party’s core group calling for a “deep review” of the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections raised the hackles of the party leadership. The letter, which had also set the stage for his expulsion two-and-a-half-months later, had lamented that the analyses of the defeat in the 2004 parliamentary elections and Rajasthan Assembly polls had not been made public. “The party has become an open field where one gets an ideological football every day. Everybody is free to kick it anywhere as there is no goalpost,” Singh, 71, had said in the letter. In the missive that brought him into confrontation with the top party brass, Singh raised questions about rewards and performance (of leaders during the elections). Meanwhile, senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu has rubbished Jaswant Singh’s claim that Atal Bihari Vajpayee wanted to resign as Prime Minister after 2002 Gujarat riots and wondered how one can trust the statements of a person who has himself admitted to lying on Kandahar issue. “Mr Jaswant Singh himself said yesterday, ‘I did not speak truth at that time (on the Kandahar hijacking issue)’. So, once he admitted it then how come you go on relying on those statements?” Naidu told reporters in Hyderabad. Asked about Singh's statement that Vajpayee wanted to resign after the 2002 Gujarat riots, Naidu said he was “not aware of any such thing.” — PTI
Why is the BJP a party in denial? New Delhi, August 22 The report indicts Arun Jaitley, LK Advani and Narendra Modi. First, Advani misled the people about the Kandahar terrorist exchange, now exposed by a bitter Jaswant Singh. Then, he lied about being asked to continue by the RSS after the poll debacle, which was exposed by Mohan Bhagwat, the Sarsanghchalak. Finally, all of them are denying the existence of a document that exists. Interestingly, it was Rajnath Singh, BJP president who had set up the three-member committee. Rajiv Pratap Rudy, BJP spokesman, had on earlier occasions confirmed the existence of the Apte committee and the fact that a report had been prepared. Says a senior BJP leader bitterly, “When the findings were being flashed on the news channels, Advani was in tears in Shimla at our meeting and then it was decided to deny the report”. So far, Apte has weathered the storm and despite pressure from those indicted refused to deny his labour. A senior leader opposed to the Advani camp says, “Assuming for a moment that the report is a fabrication who has done it? Have we investigated? Is it the Congress party or the Left? This ostrich-like attitude hardly behoves the principal opposition party of India”. The report squarely blames the Advani group for two successive poll debacles and says that the situation must change. Unfortunately, for the BJP it is a party in deep
denial. K’taka, MP won’t ban Jaswant’s book
Bangalore/Bhopal: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan have confirmed that their government does not propose to ban Jaswant Singh's book 'Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence'. Unlike Gujarat, which is also ruled by the BJP, Yediyurappa asserted that his government would not ban the book. “I am not planning to ban that book," he said. “Main Aisa Nahin Sochta (I do not think so)”, Chouhan told reporters here after he was asked whether the state government plans to ban the former Union Minister's book. The Narendra Modi Government in Gujarat blamed Jaswant's book for denigrating the image of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first Home Minister, who hails from that state and is held in high esteem by most people in India.
— ANI Vajyapee’s ‘offer’ to quit Hyderabad, August 22 "Mr Jaswant Singh himself said yesterday, 'I did not speak truth at that time (on the Kandahar hijacking issue)'. So, once he admitted it then how come you go on relying on those statements?" Naidu told reporters here. Asked about Singh's statement that Vajpayee wanted to resign after the 2002 Gujarat riots, Naidu said he was "not aware of any such thing". Naidu, who was the party president at that time, however, admitted that Vajpayee was disturbed by the happenings in Gujarat in the aftermath of the Godhra incident. "Of course, Atalji was very much disturbed about what had happened at that time as the Prime Minister of the country and has spoken about it also," Naidu said. The Rajya Sabha MP sought to playdown claims made by Singh that Home Minister L K Advani knew he was accompanying the three terrorists to the Afghan city. The three were freed in exchange of the IC-814 hijacked plane passengers. Dismissing Singh's claims, Naidu said, "neither the country nor the people are interested in these issues. They are issues of the past".
Dirty linen being washed: Cong
New Delhi: With expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh attacking the party, Congress today said "unsavoury details are coming out of the dirty linen being washed" by BJP in public. "A lot of extremely unpleasant and unsavoury details are coming out of the dirty linen that is being washed by the BJP in public," party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said. She described the "revelations" by Jaswant Singh as shocking. Singh has claimed former Home Minister L K Advani had stopped Atal Bihari Vajpayee from taking action against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi over the 2002 riots in the state on the ground that it could trigger an uproar in the party. Congress has accused BJP adopting different yardsticks for Advani and Jaswant Singh both of whom had drawn flak for their comments on Pakistan founder M A Jinnah. "It is clear that they have double standards for L K Advani, Jaswant Singh and for Arun Shourie," Natarajan had said yesterday.
— PTI
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