The announcement came like a bombshell because it was so unexpected and seemed to be a hasty afterthought.
The BJP’s three-day chintan baithak in Shimla was thrown off-kilter at its opening session on Wednesday with the party’s apex decision-making body, the parliamentary board, summarily expelling Jaswant Singh amid a storm over his book on Jinnah, which praises the founder of Pakistan and blames Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel for the Partition.
The announcement came like a bombshell because it was so unexpected and seemed to be a hasty afterthought. Some in the party saw it as a diversionary tactic by the beleaguered senior leadership, which is under pressure from the RSS as well as its own rank and file to effect a generational change of guard. Others were shaken by the arbitrariness of the decision and wondered whether there was scope for freedom of thought in the BJP after this.
Party spokespersons valiantly defended it. “The party line on Jinnah was clearly spelt out in June, 2005 (after LK Advani’s controversial clean chit to Jinnah during a trip to Pakistan),” said former Rajya Sabha member Chandan Mitra. “Anyone who goes against it only embarrasses the party.” But many in the BJP admitted privately that the move has deepened the crisis in the party.
Few of those who travelled to Shimla on Tuesday had any inkling of the explosion waiting to happen, least of all Jaswant Singh. He had been invited to the meet as a member of the parliamentary board. The first clue that he would become a target came on Tuesday evening when he was politely told to stay away from the pre-baithak gatherings, including a dinner hosted by Advani.
The storm clouds started gathering the next morning. But even then, the impression that went around was that Singh would be expelled from the parliamentary board and asked to stay away from the baithak. When the delegates met for the opening session, Rajnath Singh dropped the bombshell and recommended that Jaswant Singh be thrown out of the party itself for indiscipline.
Significantly, no one in the parliamentary board spoke up in Jaswant Singh’s defence, not even to urge Rajnath Singh to at least follow rules by first serving a show cause notice and suspending him before dropping the guillotine. The decision for immediate expulsion was unanimously taken and Jaswant Singh was left wiping his tears at a press conference later in the day.
The turmoil that gripped the BJP after the announcement was evident in the conflicting voices from party leaders. While Rajnath Singh told reporters in Shimla that Jaswant Singh was expelled for praising Jinnah, spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told correspondents in Delhi that it was his criticism of Sardar Patel that proved to be his undoing. Patel is an icon for the BJP, which regards him as a Hindu nationalist leader.
A BJP leader who wished to remain anonymous saw Jaswant Singh’s expulsion as a belated effort to enforce discipline in a party that has been battling ferocious factionalism at all levels. But another leader questioned the reasoning, pointing out that similar disciplinary action should have been taken against dissidents like Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha who openly criticised the party leadership after the recent electoral rout.
While the action against Jaswant Singh is being seen through the prism of ideology and discipline, many in the party believe that the leadership tussle is responsible for what is being described as an over-the-top reaction to a mere book. In a rare interview to a television channel on the eve of the chintan baithak, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat doled out some unpleasant advice to the BJP. He indicated that it was time for both Advani and Rajnath Singh to make way for a younger leadership and urged the BJP to address the problems of factionalism and ideological drift immediately.
It is quite obvious that Advani and Rajnath Singh are under increasing pressure to quit from their respective posts and one of the top agenda items for the chintan baithak was to prepare a roadmap for a change of guard. But in the runup to the baithak, they made it clear that they are in no mood to relinquish their leadership positions. It suits both to sweep the issue under the carpet. Jaswant Singh, with his unnecessary controversial utterances on Jinnah, may have unwittingly become a handy tool for them.
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