New Delhi, October 15
It is a firecracker the BJP could have done without on Diwali.
It is Shatrughan Sinha who has fired a shotgun blast against the BJP leadership which is already reeling from the infighting that broke out after the party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.
“If Poonam Mahajan (daughter of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan) can be given a ticket why can’t Poonam Sinha be given a Rajya Sabha seat?” he asked. “This is now a party where you show me the man I will show you the rule. Despite the media plants by my own party leaders I never demanded this for my wife but, now I want to know the logic?” he said letting out his pent-up anger.
An emboldened Sinha, fresh from his one-on-one meeting with RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat, said “My only leader is my wife.”
Pouring out scorn on senior BJP leaders like Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh, Venkiah Naidu and Ravishankar Prasad, he said. “I do not believe these are my leaders. I do not accept them as such. They are mere colleagues and some of them are far junior to me.”
Making his unscripted anguish plain at not even being made a general secretary of the party, Sinha who has recently made up with his co-star actor, Rekha said, “I have more expectations from Rekha than the BJP. The less said about the BJP the better.”
“I praised Rahul Gandhi for trying to reach out to villages across India. Some of these silly leaders of my party wanted action taken against me”, he said. “I now want to ask these leaders what face they have and how do they justify time and again praising Sardar Patel and Mahatma Gandhi” he questioned taking a dig at Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and BJP leader LK Advani.
Defending Jaswant Singh in no uncertain terms, Sinha stood up to be counted among the rebels saying the expulsion without a hearing to one of the party’s founders was wrong and undemocratic. He also questioned the treatment meted out to former Major-General BC Khanduri and Yashwant Sinha. ‘’What fault had they committed. Were they corrupt or were they failures?”
“Yet people who have failed the party have been rewarded. It becomes embarrassing for me to go out in the public and face these questions as to why the BJP is behaving like this,” he said.
Upset with the kind of comments made by BJP spokesmen after Singh’s expulsion Sinha described some of them as “tota,
maina” (parrots and mynahs).
Making no secret of his disenchantment, Sinha did not once mention Advani and Rajnath Singh during the entire interview. Asked if he was disillusioned with the leadership, Sinha said he was still inspired by former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee.
“I earlier never believed that the RSS should take over the BJP. You know I am not from the RSS but, now the mess has worsened so much it is the only option.’’ he said.
“Once upon a time the BJP was inspired by the ideals of Jayaprakash Narayan, my idol. He was against dynasty, corruption and bad governance. Now with Poonam Mahajan induction and some of our actions, we can be equated with the Congress.”
On a Rajya Sabha seat for Poonam Sinha, he said plants and leaks were organised by some BJP leaders. “I have never talked about my domestic matters outside the house. There should be some dignity and decency but “ab inhone nei ghar ki baat bahar nikali hai toh door talak jayagi. I will not take it lying down. Poonam Sinha has served BJP for 20 years. She is able and a talented woman.”
