Jaswant’s expulsion to deflect attention

swiftness with which the BJP acted against the senior party leader Jaswant Singh by expelling him from the party for his Jinnah praise and criticism for the party's iconic personality Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel in his book “Jinnah - India - Partition - Independence”. Jaswant was expelled on the first day of the 3-day Chintan Baithak of BJP in Shimla. The BJP took the decisive step to deflect the attention from the issue of growing infighting on one hand and showed that it was uncompromising on the issue of ideology with any leader howsoever of high stature he is on the other. But it forgot that when the party's tallest leader L K Advani had described Mohammad Ali Jinnah as secular during his Pakistan visit in 2005, he was only asked to step down as party president. While Jaswant was expelled within 48 hours of his book release in which he has called Jinnah as the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity and held Sardar Patel and Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru responsible for partition of India. This shows BJP's double standard.The decision is being read in the party as a stern message of zero tolerance to ideological deviation and indiscipline. These were among several messages clearly conveyed to the BJP by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat in a television interview a day before Chintan Bhaithak. The BJP viewed his praise of Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and his adverse comments on India’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, as ideological heresy that required stern action.Since the day BJP tasted power in 1996 for thirteen days in its first stint, the factionalism and corruption took roots in the party. Though it won elections in 1998 and 1999 and ruled the country for almost seven years, it formed the alliance of about twenty four regional and state parties named National Democratic Alliance (NDA). BJP’s tallest leader Atal Behari Vajpayee who led the alliance and sworn in as Prime Minister thrice- 1996, 1998 and 1999. His personality was so towering and dominating that the voice of dissent within the party never surfaced. Till he was in active politics, his word was final in the party and he commanded enormous respect among party leaders. But after he announced retirement from active politics, his deputy and comerade-in-arms in building the party and bringing it to power, former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani became the sole leader to lead the party in 2009 Lok Sabha elections. He was projected as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. But the BJP fell headlong and defeated badly in the elections. The dream of L K Advani becoming the Prime Minister of the country was shattered and dissensions, infighting and factionalism in the BJP came in the open. Its doting parent Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) also asked it to stop infighting and bring the youngsters to the fore to lead the party. Just after the drubbing in Lok Sabha elections, one leader after another started shooting off letters to BJP president Rajnath Singh to call a meeting to do introspection about the defeat and fixing responsibility. Though L K Advani resigned from the post of leader of the opposition immediately after the results of Lok Sabha were out and refused to continue as the leader of the party in Lok Sabha, it was his public show because when some of the leaders who form his coteries requested him not to resign and continue to lead the party, Advani gave in to pressure and took back his resignation. After that without having given a thought to the causes of defeat in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections, he appointed his camp leader Sushama Swaraj as deputy leader of Lok Sabha and Arun Jaitely as the leader of the party in Rajya Sabha inspite of the fact that he was party incharge in the elections. This action of L K Advani infuriated the senior party leadrs Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shorie. One by one all these leaders shot off the letters to Rajnath Singh demanding a meeting of the party to analyse the defeat and fix accountability. They alleged that the leaders who have no base and do politics sitting in air-conditioned room and primarily responsible for the defeat of the party are rewarded and those leadrs who toil in fields in elections are ignored. The BJP has turned out to be a field of party leaders to wrestle with one another. Party president Rajnath Singh’s tenure is coming to end in December so he did not openly support any group within the party so that there could be no hurdle in his re-election as party president.