New Delhi, August 24
Within days of Jaswant Singh being expelled from the BJP the next on the chopping block may be its senior leader and former Union Minister Arun Shourie.
Shourie has given a call for the removal of the entire BJP leadership describing the present state of the party “Kati Patang (drifting kite)” and its president Rajnath Singh a “Humpty Dumpty in Alice in Blunderland.”
In a scathing interview to the NDTV, Shourie has called upon the RSS to “bombard the (BJP) headquarters in the style of China’s great leader Mao Zhe Dung, and suggested that RSS should swiftly take over the reins of the party, select ten people from the states and appoint them to take care of the party and reform it from the top downwards.
Expecting that his biting indictment may invite disciplinary action, Shourie shrugged his shoulders and said “You call it indiscipline. Ok, call it.” Reacting instantly to excerpts from Shourie’s interview BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy said, “I am sure he himself wants to quit the party and become a martyr and we will give him ample opportunity to do this.”
Rudy also alleged that “Shourie has no stakes in the party. His term in the Rajya Sabha is coming to an end. It’s unfortunate that leaders like him are there till the going is good. Now that they feel that things are not so good, they seem to have other plans.”
BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, however, dismissed the possibility of any action against Shourie tonight itself and hinted that the party may wait till the full interview is telecast and only then take formal notice of this. He of course dismissed the attacks by Shourie and Jaswant Singh saying, “Some so-called writers are challenging the fighters. It is very unfortunate. Such actions will only strengthen the party further.”
Shourie had also supported the claim of Jaswant Singh that soon after the 2002 Gujarat riots the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Pramod Mahajan, Shourie and Jaswant Singh and some others in the party wanted to sack Chief Minister Narendra Modi. But LK Advani vehemently opposed this and eventually Advani’s will prevailed.
He disclosed that it was decided that Advani will ask Modi to resign.
Shourie also dismised lightly the Shimla expulsion of Jaswant Singh and denied RSS had any role to play in that. Alluding to Rajnath Singh, who as party president acted against Jaswant, Shourie said, “You want blood, (the resignation of all the top leaders) I am giving you blood independently. I am Tarzan, Me Tarzan.”
Incidentally Shourie’s old newspaper The Indian Express will be carrying his three-part series from tomorrow attacking the BJP on Jaswant Singh account.
