New Delhi, July 16: Theatre artiste and Delhi BJP vice-president Aamir Raza Hussain has become a casualty of the proxy war between L.K. Advani and Narendra Modi.
The actor-director, who claims to be “very close” to Advani and his family, has resigned his party post after calling Modi names at a TV debate last night.
Hussain’s association with the BJP, which was more social than political, dated to the time his “old friend” Vijay Goel was a junior minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s PMO. Goel now heads the Delhi BJP and is believed to have been instrumental in Hussain’s induction into the party just three months ago.
Once Hussain was in the party, Advani “pressured” Goel into giving him a senior post and involving him in the nitty-gritty of the Delhi elections, due this year, sources said. Hussain is often spotted at social events at the Advanis’ home.
Last night, during a TV panel discussion on the “trust deficit” between Modi and Muslims, Hussain was asked if he regarded the Gujarat chief minister as his “leader”.
“I beg your pardon?” he asked the anchor, who looked a bit taken aback. When she repeated the question, he shot back: “He is not my leader; he is only a leader.”
Hussain went on to trash Modi’s recent “kutte ka bachcha” and “burqa of secularism” remarks and his claim to be a “Hindu nationalist” as “despicable and divisive”. He said Modi could never hope to gain Muslims’ support.
He then advised the BJP to project Advani or Sushma Swaraj as its prime ministerial candidate if it wanted Muslims’ support.
“Advani and Sushma have won over the Muslims,” he claimed, ignoring a question on Advani’s stewardship of the movement against the Babri Masjid.
Hussain’s comments provoked an outcry among Delhi BJP leaders, most of whom were already upset with his lateral entry and the position he had been given because of his presumed proximity to Advani and Goel.
Many demanded “quick action” from Goel against Hussain. As Goel stayed silent, some of them approached party national president Rajnath Singh, who immediately asked Goel to crack the whip, sources said.
To soften the blow, Goel advised his friend to put in his papers, which Hussain promptly did. “I stand by every word I spoke in that debate. But I do not wish to embarrass my friend Vijay,” Hussain said, adding he had not spoken to Advani about the controversy “although I keep visiting him”.
In April, Goel had proposed Advani as the BJP’s candidate for Prime Minister before withdrawing the suggestion within hours.
In the party, Goel is regarded as Sushma’s protégé. Sushma is pitching hard to have him named the party’s prospective chief minister in Delhi but the rest of the state unit is united against its chief. The Hussain affair may now make it tougher for Goel to survive at the helm of the Delhi BJP.
Party sources claimed to have been “shocked” by the “lengths to which Advani can go to resist Modi’s ascendancy”. They said it was a matter of time before the party announced its candidate for Delhi chief minister to undermine Goel.
Yashwant Sinha’s “gratuitous” advice to Modi in a newspaper article yesterday — to refrain from making controversial statements — has also got the BJP’s back up. Sinha is often seen as a sounding board for Advani.
Hussain’s stinging criticism of Modi is being perceived as further confirmation of the suspicion that Advani has not given up his resistance to Modi, a source said.
Hussain had received the Padma Shri in 2001 a year after staging a production based on the Kargil war, which the NDA considered a feather in its cap. He had also advised Goel on a project to spruce up Old Delhi when Goel was a minister.
