Jaswant seeks Vajpayee's blessings, Kulkarni quits

Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former aide of Vajpayee and Advani, snaps his 13-year-old ties with the party over ideological differences

Days after his expulsion from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Jaswant Singh today scored a victory of sorts over those who had ‘masterminded’ his exit, when he got an audience with party patriarch and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Singh, who had served as minister in-charge of finance, defence and external affairs during Vajpayee-led NDA governments, met the former PM at his residence for nearly 45 minutes. “I had gone to seek his (Vajpayee’s) blessings on Ganesh Chaturthi,” a visibly happy Jaswant Singh told reporters after the meeting.

Singh was sacked for his book ‘Jinnah — India, Partition, Independence’, in which he has praised Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Vajpayee, who has kept himself away from active politics due to ill health since 2004, is still seen by everyone in the BJP as a moral authority. The party had circulated Vajpayee’s letter endorsing L K Advani’s candidature as prime ministerial candidate in the recent general elections. The party had even used his cut-outs and pictures during its election campaign.

Jaswant Singh was among the few BJP ministers who were close to Vajpayee. As after his expulsion, Jaswant started spilling the beans of happenings inside the party in the wake of 2002 post-Godhra riots, he claimed that an anguished Vajpayee had decided to resign as prime minister. Singh also vouched for Vajpayee’s intention to act against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, which his then home minister L K Advani is alleged to have scuttled.

Vajpayee reportedly keeps in touch with the latest events through television. Asked whether he spoke to Vajpayee on his expulsion, Singh said: “There is no need to brief him, as Vajpayeeji watches television and is up to date about the happenings.”

In yet another embarrassment to the crisis-hit BJP, Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former aide of Vajpayee and Advani, today snapped his 13-year association with the party over ideological differences.

Kulkarni was in charge of Advani’s election campaign during the general elections. He was targeted by angry BJP leaders for the party’s poll debacle while, soon after the defeat, Kulkarni wrote a critique of the party’s election campaign in a leading newspaper.

However, BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi claimed that Kulkarni had neither been a member nor an office bearer of the party since 2005. Incidentally, Kulkarni had to resign as political advisor to Advani, again on the issue of Jinnah. He had written the “Jinnah-was-secular” theme speech for Advani, which he had rendered in Karachi in July 2005. Following his speech, which raised hackles in the RSS and BJP, Advani had to quit as BJP chief. Kulkarni too had tendered his resignation.

Kulkarni’s latest write-up was critical of the way the BJP had treated Jaswant Singh. He had also debunked the BJP theory that Singh’s book had portrayed Sardar Patel, India’s first home minister, as having been in favour of India’s division.