During the Budget discussion, when you and other senior BJP leaders did not get to speak in Parliament, everyone wondered why your party was missing in the crucial debate. After you were asked to speak on the
Indo-Pak joint statement, things seem to be looking up for you in the party.
Though it is for the party to select speakers to voice its point of view in Parliament, we have been in the government for six years and our expertise, individual and collective, is defined by the responsibilities we had held then. Therefore, as I was the finance minister twice and had presented five Budgets, I can speak well on economic issues. Besides me, Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie were often asked to speak on economic issues. Similarly, as Jaswant Singh and I have been external affairs ministers and Arun Shourie has a natural aptitude for foreign policy issues, we three often spoke on foreign policy issues.
So, when the new government presented its first Budget and I did not lead the party's response in the Lok Sabha, it, as you also said, surprised many. It would have caused further surprise if Jaswant Singh or I had not been asked to speak on the Indo-Pak joint statement. Though I was disappointed at not being allowed to speak on the Budget, I am happy that I spoke on the Indo-Pak issue.
So, your letter (to BJP President Rajnath Singh) is finally making an impact.
I had raised a different set of issues in my letter. But I feel we three were natural choices for the party to speak on foreign policy and economic issues. I would not say that the party should ask me to speak on issues related to HRD (human resource development) or health, even though as a finance minister, one gets a hang of all ministries.
Do you feel something is changing in BJP, at least for you?
I think there is a growing demand within the party that some issues that we had raised (in the aftermath of the party's defeat in the Lok Sabha polls) should be examined. I am happy that the party is making arrangements for this.
You and many other BJP leaders have been saying openly that the mantle of leadership should be passed to younger leaders. Who are you referring to, the second-rung BJP leaders in their sixties?
I would not like to take names. But every party has a different system of projecting and boosting younger leaders. I believe that a very large number of young people believes in what BJP stands for. Some of them are in the party, while others will be glad to be in the party. We should promote them. I am not saying that a person in his 30s should lead the
party today, but surely such people should be groomed to lead the party in the next ten years. I would say we should do better cadre management. But BJP does not face an immediate leadership crisis and nobody should be imposed on it since leaders have to evolve naturally.
In your opinion, what led to BJP's defeat in the elections? You may be in a better position to analyse it since you had worked hard to make it to the Lok Sabha
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