New Delhi, June 29: L.K. Advani's statement recalling his resignation in the Hawala scandal and his stress on probity has left the Narendra Modi government embarrassed and enraged even as the strategy is to ignore the comments in public, BJP insiders said.
"Why should we react and invite unnecessary focus? Advaniji is a very senior leader. Whatever he says is taken note of by the party but not discussed in public," said a senior BJP leader.
The strategy is of a piece with the way the Modi government has swatted Opposition calls for foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan chief to quit over the Lalit Modi row.
Despite the tactic, party leaders acknowledged disquiet within over Advani's statements, with many privately airing the view that Advani had offered ammunition and strength to an already-emboldened Opposition.
In an interview to Anandabazar Patrika on Sunday, Advani had recalled how he had ignored then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's advice and resigned in 1996 to uphold "probity in public life" after his name figured in the Hawala scandal.
"For a politician, to command people's trust is the biggest responsibility. What morality demands is raj dharma and the need to maintain probity in public life," Advani had said, but refrained from commenting on the allegations against Sushma, seen as a protégé, and Raje.
The Opposition has lapped up the comments as a signal that Sushma and Raje should have emulated the BJP patriarch and stepped down.
Today, as the BJP appeared to hit back at rivals with a protest outside the Congress headquarters, former BJP ideologue K.N. Govindacharya seemed to rub salt into the ruling party's wounds. "Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje should have themselves resigned on moral grounds the minute the Lalit Modi row began," Govindacharya, who has fallen out with the BJP but is still considered an RSS ideologue, told Aaj Tak channel.
The BJP workers were protesting senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad's comment that Modi's call for social security for women ahead of Raksha Bandhan in his radio address Mann Ki Baat was meant to polarise the country as it highlighted the festival of one community.
In the BJP, so deep seemed the anger at Advani's remarks that a senior leader, who discussed at length the charges against Raje, snapped at the reference to the veteran's interview. "Leave that aside. We are not taking note of it," the leader said, accusing the media of giving credence to Advani's statements despite being aware he had lost his significance in the party and the government.
Not only Advani, several senior BJP leaders have been sidelined since Modi's thumping victory last May. These leaders, including Murli Manohar Joshi, have been put in a Margdarshak Mandal (advisory panel) that hasn't met even once so far. "The BJP has declared leaders above 75 years brain dead," Yashwant Sinha, another senior, remarked recently, only half in jest.
BJP insiders, however, realise that Advani still commands considerable influence and his remarks will strengthen a section in the party feeling stifled under the Modi-Amit Shah regime. "Many leaders are eagerly looking towards (the) Bihar (polls). If the party loses, the simmering discontent could spill out," said another leader.
