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Advani opens his mouth on
Jaswant episode, creates confusion
WSN Network
New Delhi: Days
after the BJP plunged headlong into massive trouble and was reduced
into a daily soap opera instead of a political party trying to
understand the electoral verdict against it, the man at the root of
the problem, L K Advani, has said he was not in favour of Jaswant
Singh's expulsion, contradicting the party's assertion that he was
part of the decision.
"These reports
are correct that I was not in agreement with the decision to expel
Jaswant Singh," he said about the decision of the party's
Parliamentary Board on August 19 in Shimla in which he was present.
He, however,
refused to elaborate saying, "I am not interested in any further
controversy."
Advani did not
care to explain why he did not utter the truth about an episode
which has led to much shame for the party and turned it into a
subject of ridicule. That Advani's clarification could have
prevented much damage is well known. His recent claim is contrary to
the assertion by the BJP that Advani was party to the decision to
expel the Darjeeling MP for eulogising Pakistan founder M A Jinnah
and denigrating Patel.
Advani's claim
also renders suspicious the claim by BJP leader Sushma Swaraj,
another leader known for her communal approach and rhetoric on most
issues, who while briefing reporters on the deliberations of BJP's
'Chintan Baithak' in Shimla, had said on August 21 that Advani had
described the decision to expel Jaswant as ‘painful but necessary’.
"It is mentally
painful to expel somebody who has been with you for the past 30
years but what he wrote was against the basic ideology of the
party," Swaraj, considered close to Advani, had quoted him as
telling the BJP meet.
23
September 2009
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