'Lateral entrants', a term coined for non-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers, are in for tough days ahead in the Bharatiya Janata Party. In the wake of recent wrangling in the BJP, followed by the exit of senior leaders like Jaswant Singh and L K Advani's aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, the party has decided to clip the feathers of 'lateral' entrants. It literally implies that the members, who are non-swayamsevaks, will no more be able to enjoy power and clout.
It seems that Jaswant Singh, expelled from the Bharatiya Janata Party for his controversial book on Jinnah, is likely to visit Pakistan for the launch of the book after Ramzan, but sources close to him are yet to confirm the report.
Party sources said the course of action against Shourie could be decided against the backdrop of the swift action taken against Jaswant Singh who was expelled last week. "The party has taken note of the utterances of Mr Shourie. It shall be responded to appropriately after discussions," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said in New Delhi.
Union Minister of State for External Affairs Sashi Tharoor on Sunday said that it was not proper to ban the book authored by Jaswant Singh for his references on Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Talking to reporters, Tharoor said that in a democratic country like India, people have the right and freedom to speak and write. "If a person is not interested in reading the book, let him not read it," he said.
Member of Rajya Sabha from Bharatiya Janata Party, on returning after attending they party's three-day long Chintan Baithak in Shimla, told rediff.com that he was shocked to read former Union minister and recently expelled leader Jaswant Singh's controversial book on Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the way "he degraded the iron man of India Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel."
Breaking his decade-long silence, former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh on Friday sought to embarrass L K Advani by saying that he "covered" up for him when he said that the former Home Minister was not aware that he was going to Kandahar with three terrorists during the 1999 hijack episode.
Describing expulsion of Jaswant Singh as a "painful but necessary" decision, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Friday answered his criticism on Sardar Vallabhai Patel saying the first Home Minister had banned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at Jawaharlal Nehru's behest.
BJP's former mascot Jaswant Singh, for long, could do no wrong and was fiercely defended even when he was caught on camera dozing in Parliament or indulging in feudal and obscurantist customs like offering opium in his cupped palm to his loyalists. But an infantile desire to play Herodotus has done him in.
Raje is expected to meet party chief Rajnath Singh and L K Advani, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, in New Delhi on August 22, soon after they return from the ongoing chintan baithak (brainstorming session) in Shimla.
The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) today refused to be drawn into the expulsion of Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh from BJP, saying the development would not affect its movement for Gorkhaland statehood.
Brawn triumphed over brain last week as the Bharatiya Janata Party announced, after "consultations" with "foreign policy experts", that it was for a "muscular" foreign policy so that "nobody thinks they can mess with India".
Three top leaders of the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley and Jaswant Singh -- will contesting the coming Lok Sabha elections and manage the party's election campaign instead.
Reacting to the Interim Budget 2009-10 on Monday, the Bhartiya Janata Party claimed that the United Progressive Alliance government had failed to live up to the promises it made to the nation under its common minimum programme.
Members of Parliament (MPs) across the political spectrum have written to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), seeking a probe into a stake sale deal between Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Gulf-based carrier Etihad Airways.
President A P J Abdul Kalam presented the awards in Central Hall of Parliament.
The stage was on Friday set for a stormy Bharatiya Janata Party national executive meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, with senior leader Arun Shourie joining others in demanding an open discussion on the party's Lok Sabha poll debacle that has turned the party into a badly divided house.
In a bid to stop the party leaders' infighting in public, Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Saturday issued a gag order on its leaders and functionaries from talking to media, formally or informally.
Sensing an impending storm at its crucial meeting on June 20 to discuss its poor show in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to set up an in-house committee to analyse the reasons for its electoral defeat.The decision to set up the committee is expected to be finalised at the party's 'core committee' meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday. Besides party President Rajnath Singh and Opposition leader L K Advani, senior leaders will also attend.
When Advani shook hands, the prime minister did not come out his seat. While Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav hugged Advani for a second, Lalu Prasad too came out of his seat to greet Advani, but did not hug him.
Among other dignitaries who paid tributes toSavarkar were Sushma Swaraj, S S Ahluwalia, V K Malhotra, Shri Santosh Kumar Gangawar, Maya Singh, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, members of Parliament and many former members of Parliament. Lok Sabha Secretary-General P D T Achary and Rajya Sabha Secretary-General V K Agnihotri, also paid floral tributes at the portrait of Savarkar.
Former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Tuesday questioned why senior party leader L K Advani kept silent for a month on his expulsion from the party before saying that he had disfavoured the disciplinary action.
Jaswant Singh's book has raised a fresh controversy on who was responsible for the Partition of India. Some think it was Mohammed Ali Jinnah; others say Jawharlal Nehru/Sardar Patel. The truth is that the seeds for Partition were sown at least 80 before Partition actually happened.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has convened a meeting of the party's core committee to discuss the resignation of senior Maharashtra leader Gopinath Munde. Senior leaders including L K Advani, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley are expected to participate in the meeting.The BJP leadership had called Munde and Maharashtra BJP chief Nitin Gadkari to Delhi. Gadkari had arrived in New Delhi and Munde was expected to arrive late on Monday.
Jaswant refuses to step down as PAC chairman
Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Tuesday rejected the party's demand to step down as chairman of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, saying a decision on this could be taken only by the Lok Sabha speaker and not by the party.
Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former aide of Leader of Opposition L K Advani, on Saturday defended the former on the issue of the cash-for-vote scam that rocked the proceedings in Parliament in July 2008.Kulkarni's defence of Advani came a day after expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh fired a fresh salvo at octogenarian leader, accusing him of being at the centre of the cash-for-votes scam drama enacted in the Lok Sabha last year.
Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Friday sharpened his attack on the BJP by saying that senior party leader L K Advani was 'at the centre' of the cash-for-votes scam drama enacted in the Lok Sabha last year. "It is a great sense of pity. Here was a man who was consumed by an ambition to be prime minister, and that desire made him commit so many mistakes," Singh said. Singh further said that Advani had two options to choose from.
Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh has sent feelers to expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh to join his party. "I have spoken with him and I have very candidly told him that he is not alone. I am too small a fry to invite him to my party, but it will be my fortune to enable him to do something to be active in politics through the platform of SP," Amar Singh told television channels.
Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said the state has no plans to follow in Gujarat's footsteps and ban the book. He was speaking at a press conference on the just concluded by-elections in Karnataka.
Leader of Opposition L K Advani is upset with the developments in the Bharatiya Janata Party, on the event of the national executive to be held in New Delhi shortly.
Shekhawat was accompanied by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other NDA leaders.
The National Democratic Alliance had offered to extend outside support to the United National Progressive Alliance's prime ministerial candidate in 2007, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh has revealed.The NDA had made the offer to the UNPA during the presidential polls last year, the senior BJP leader told mediapersons in New Delhi on Saturday.The former finance minister also warned that the country was "hurtling towards an economic emergency" under the UPA govt.
An all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the Mumbai terror strikes on Sunday night saw sharp differences on the issue of a tough anti-terror POTA-like law with BJP making a strong demand for such a law and the United Progressive Alliance opposing it tooth and nail.
With the Indo-US nuclear deal already turning into a major headache for the government, the BJP on Monday asked the Congress to take a clear stand on the issue instead of blaming others.
Charging the finance minister with leaving an off-budget fiscal overhang of Rs 300,000 crore (Rs 3,000 billion), which could wreck the country's economy, Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday demanded resignation of P Chidambaram to escape "dismissal". Singh warned that the country was heading for the worst kind of food inflation and the off-budget subsidy on fertiliser and petroleum would leave a serious dent on the government finances.
K P S Gill, former director general of Punjab police, has refuted allegations against him in a 125-page human rights report in which he was accused of personally questioning human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra.
Jaswant Singh, a 35 year-old vegetable seller, sprinkled kerosene on his body and set himself ablaze at his shop in the presence of dozens of people while chanting Bum bum bholay in Gagwal village of Kathua district, official sources said in Jammu.
Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha, Leader of the Opposition Jaswant Singh made a demand for a probe by a House Committee into the Rs 7,800 crore (Rs 78 billion) fraud.
Under persistent attack on the Kandahar hostage issue, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Wednesday sought to make the Congress an equal partner for the blame, saying the decision to release three terrorists was taken at an all-party meeting in which Manmohan Singh had participated as the Leader of Opposition.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Wednesday claimed that Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jehangir had been allowed to visit Jammu and Kashmir as a United Nations rapporteur and questioned the clearance for it."Are we seeking reciprocal arrangements from Pakistan government for such visits by Indian human rights activists," Jaswant Singh, Leader of Opposition in the Upper House, said while replying to a debate on the President's address.
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