The battle within

Sir — Jaswant Singh, the veteran parliamentarian who belonged to the Bharatiya Janata Party, was denied his wish to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Barmer, his home constituency in Rajasthan. He was an experienced member of the party who had held many important portfolios under the National Democratic Alliance government. Singh has reacted vehemently against his party’s decision; he has resigned from the BJP and has filed his nomination from Barmer as an independent candidate. And now the BJP has expelled him from its ranks for six years. The editorial, “Losing battle” (March 25), has rightly pointed out that few will be convinced by Singh’s claim that his rebellion is inspired by “principles”. Singh is known to be an adamant person and was expelled from the primary membership of the party for his remarks in his book, Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence, where he praised M.A. Jinnah, much to the BJP’s chagrin.

As Singh is a former army officer, people perhaps expect him to be more disciplined, but few know that he had served the army for a short time and left by 1966. His leaving the army and joining politics so soon is enough evidence of his ‘sincerity’ in serving his country. After being expelled from the party in 2009 for his book on Jinnah, he was allowed to return to the partyfold in 2010 on the advice of L.K. Advani. The latter, too, had to face a storm when he said that Jinnah was “secular” on his visit to Pakistan in 2005. Both Advani and Singh may have made a mistake in thinking that calling Jinnah secular would lead to the party garnering more Muslim votes.

Singh should take a lesson from his younger colleague, Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was elected from Amritsar three times under the BJP banner. Sidhu agreed to the BJP’s decision to replace him with Arun Jaitley in Amritsar. He accepted this as the party’s strategy to field Jaitley from a safe place. He also said that soldiers do not lead but follow orders. He seems to be an intelligent politician who is destined for a long tenure in the party. Fighting with one’s own party is counter-productive. Singh’s decision to go to the media with his troubles may help him initially, but it will leave another black mark on his career and may even adversely affect the political fortunes of his son in the BJP.

India’s political system encourages talking over real action. It kills the initiative for novel ideas. An indication of this is that aged politicians such as Advani do not want to vacate their seats for their younger colleagues such as Narendra Modi. Thankfully, Modi has behind him the support of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. It may be a new strategy of the BJP to isolate the veterans so that they do not strike back as a united force. The party’s decision to let Sonaram Choudhary contest from Barmer must have been well considered. Sidhu is right in saying that politicians should follow instructions without questioning them. If this dictum is followed, the chances of internal strife will lessen and more new candidates will be fielded by political parties.

Yours faithfully,
Benu Kumar Bose, Calcutta

Sir — Jaswant Singh, a former Union minister and an intellectual giant in the BJP until recently, has defied the party. He has filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate from Barmer. Singh accused the BJP president, Rajnath Singh, of ‘betraying’ him. Only time will tell whether Singh will win or lose, but by standing as an independent candidate he will in all likelihood ensure that Sonaram Choudhary, the BJP’s candidate from Barmer who had defected from the Congress, is defeated. Interestingly, the 76-year-old leader launched a stinging diatribe against Singh and the Rajasthan chief minister, Vasundhara Raje, but he made no mention of the party’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi. The leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, has said that a politician or leader denied a ticket must accept the party’s decision with a “smile”. This is meant not merely for Jaswant Singh, but also for other big leaders such as Murli Manohar Joshi, L.K. Advani, Harin Pathak and Subhash Maharia. Maharia has been denied a ticket from Sikar even though he had defeated the Congress veteran, Balram Jakhar. Like Singh, Maharia is contesting as an independent now.

It remains to be seen whether the BJP made a mistake by ignoring the wishes of such veteran politicians. What one learns from the entire drama surrounding Jaswant Singh is that no politicians like to have their wishes disregarded, and some will protest vehemently against such actions.

Yours faithfully,
Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee, Faridabad