NEW DELHI: BJP's dissidents seem to be digging in for a long fight even as expelled party leader Jaswant Singh added another turn of phrase - apart
from Arun Shourie's "humpty-dumpty" and "Alice in blunderland" - in describing his former outfit as an Indian version of the white supramacist Ku Klux Klan.
Jaswant Singh's reference to the BJP, of which he was member for 30-odd years, as a KKK-type outfit came in an interview to a news agency. Apparently in reaction to a question on why he was sacked, the former minister said, "Please don't ask me. I am outside the magic circle of advisers or thinkers. Because I am not from the RSS, is that why? So are we a political party? Is the BJP becoming some kind of an Indian version of Ku Klux Klan?"
The former minister refused to elaborate saying, "You know what the Klan means. You don't ask me about this." His outburst seems to suggest he now sees BJP as a secretive, violent sect that has no place for leaders like him who may espouse a sense of independent inquiry. His comment might also have to do with reports that Arun Shourie was not likely to meet the same fate as Singh due to the former's proximity to the RSS.
He chose to skirt around a question about why BJP leader L K Advani was rejected by people as a prime ministerial aspirant. He said it was for the BJP veteran to reflect on this. "It would be impertinent and perhaps, to a degree also, I would be commenting on my past 30 years with him if I commented on his characteristics, political or personal," he said.
Asked if Advani was surrounded by a coterie, Singh suggested his former leader was more led than a leader. "Does he run a coterie or does the coterie run him," Singh asked. He said BJP should reflect on its relationship with RSS and be "mature enough to cut the umbilical cord".
"I feel for BJP to gain its full personality as a political organisation, they have to stand on their own feet. Now they should be mature enough to cut the umbilical cord," he said. He disagreed with Shourie's suggestion that RSS should take over the party saying it will not work. "I would like the BJP to reflect on what has happened and try to be a party of the 21st Century. They (RSS) are exclusivist. Besides, they are an organisation committed to social work," he said.
To a question on a long rope being extended to Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan and Shourie merely being asked for a clarification, he said, "I am sorry. I cannot comment on it. I was told don't come to the meeting. Of course. Good luck to Raje. But there are obviously double standards."
Asked if his expulsion was a message to other dissidents in the party, he shot back: "Am I a dissident. I am sorry. Your question suggests I am some kind of a dissident. I feel I am one of the original founding members of the party. Who felt that I had raised queries or questions? And is questioning or wondering or enquiring about the functioning of the party dissidence? So are we moving into an era of thought control?"
Asked about chances of reconciliation with BJP, Singh said, "Reconciliation to what? Reconciliation to an insult?"
He ruled out joining the Samajwadi Party, which has invited him to join it. "I am happy to be an independent." He said he was an independent member of the Parliament now representing Darjeeling constituency and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) has reaffirmed its total faith in him. "I will serve the cause of GJM and Gorkhaland. That is my karma bhoomi and my janam bhoomi is the desert. I shall serve them," he said.
He ruled out stepping down as chairman of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee following his expulsion from BJP. Singh said he had consulted the secretary general of Lok Sabha, who said that rules did not require him to step down. The Committee is a mini-Parliament and it was the prerogative of the Speaker to remove him on certain grounds which do not apply to him, he said. When told he had become chairman because BJP nominated him to it, he said, "BJP nominated me only to contest the elections."
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