Bhagwat takes Shah to task for Bihar drubbing

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Bhagwat takes Shah to task for Bihar drubbing

BJP douses fire; allies, party MP attack RSS chief too

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Nov. 9

The BJP high command tried to douse fire today as the knives are out within the 'Sangh Parivar' after drubbing in Bihar. The marathon meeting of the BJP's Parliamentary Board rather became a tame affair as it did not even 'discuss' taking action against erring leaders like Shatrughan Sinha and R K Singh.

On the contrary, the party had to come out in defence of the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat whose statement on reservations has enraged the BJP's allies. Be it Jitan Ram Manjhi (HAM), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal) or BJP's own senior party leader Hukumdev Narayan Yadav, all of them publicly criticized Bhagwat for his statement on reservation.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley put up a stout defence of Bhagwat obliquely by saying that no single statement by any leader could affect the outcome of the Bihar election. He said the die had been cast in Bihar when the three parties - JD(U), RJD and Congress - came together. They had contested in 2014 separately and lost miserably. "This time, they came together and the party lost and this was the biggest reason of the defeat," he asserted.

He also dismissed the suggestions by some that party chief Amit Shah should resign saying, " We have won four state assemblies. We have gained elsewhere in the country." It looked like the BJP leadership is trying hard to buy peace with the party dissidents and hold its horses.

The Parliamentary Board's meeting held at the residence of Amit Shah, was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all its 12 members. Though Union minister for water resources Uma Bharti and senior leader Murlidhar Rao wanted swift action against Shatrughan Sinha and party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya who used 'dog' analogy for Shatrughan Singh, creating a ruckus. But it became clear that the party is in no mood to bell the cat when the Prime Minister is busy during the whole month with foreign visits. He leaves for UK and Turkey on November 12 night and goes to Singapore and Malaysia on November 21 and then to Paris on November 30.

In between the Parliament session will begin on November 26. Therefore, it is unlikely that there will be any Cabinet reshuffle before the Parliament session or organisational changes either. Mohan Bhagwat camped in Delhi and met Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Amit Shah, Ravi Shankar Prasad and other ministers to take first hand review of the political situation. Party sources say that Bhagwat was angry as to why the BJP leaders failed to clarify his statement on reservations which was misconstrued and exploited by the Opposition parties.

Centre issues stringent warning to 'lose cannons'

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

￭ Gen V K Singh on notice ￭ PM to meet hurt writers
 

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Oct 23 : With the BJP high command issuing a stern warning to what it calls "lose cannons" within the party and government of stern action, erring ministers and leaders are running for a cover. If Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh is offering one apology after the other for his "dog comment" on TV channels, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has vowed that he would never give a press interview.

So upset was BJP president Amit Shah with these developments that he took two days off from the hectic campaigning in Bihar and camped in Delhi. He may have used the occasion to celebrate Dussehra festival and his birthday as well. But he conveyed his annoyance in no uncertain terms to such "motor mouths" that they would be expelled forthwith if they did it again.

The Dadri incident has done the worst damage to the party's prospects in Bihar where it is trying hard to woo the Dalits and Maha-dalits. Since V K Singh was given the Lok Sabha ticket by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh during his tenure as BJP chief, Amit Shah asked him to issue a public warning to the erring minister. V K Singh has embarrassed the party on three previous occasions.

It was only after the strong signal from Shah that Rajnath Singh issued a public warning to V K Singh. Rajnath Singh said on Friday, "Ministers must be careful while making statements. We cannot get away by saying that the statement was misinterpreted or twisted."

Incidentally, most of these 'lose cannons' belong to the Rajput community such as V K Singh or Sangeet Som, or those considered close to BJP's veteran leader L K Advani including Shatrughan Sinha, Yashwant Sinha, Sakshi Maharaj or Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti etc.

It may be mentioned that General VK Singh had said yesterday: "If someone throws stones at a dog, the government is not responsible." The comment was seen as extraordinarily insensitive anas LJP leader Ram Vilas aswan and HAM leader Jitan Ram Manjhi have condemned Singh's statement in strongest terms.

The BJP is now running for a cover and it is likely that when the PM addresses rallies in Bihar during the next three days beginning October 25, he will send a strong signal at his level as well.

The Prime Minister's decision to meet the writers who have returned their Sahitya Academy awards is also a signal that Mr Modi will put a lid on the politics of intolerance. The PM's move has been widely welcomed and cooled tempers. The writers are likely to meet the PM during the next couple of days. Though they held a march in the Capital protesting against the killings of the innocents and hate politics, the PM's move has led to temperature subsiding. 

Meanwhile, a police case has been filed against General Singh at the instance of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes in UP.