Click to play videoThe BJP was once an organisation of “flame-like purity” but power has “tarnished it”, says senior politician Jaswant Singh, whom the party expelled on Wednesday.
Singh told CNN-IBN in an interview that senior BJP leaders knew that he was writing a biography of Mohammed Ali Jinnah and yet expelled him without any warning. “After 30 years, to be terminated suddenly through a telephone call was not the most pleasant of political experiences,” he said.
Rajdeep Sardesai: In that press conference you attended today, you seemed hurt and emotional rather than being angry and bitter. You almost seemed teary-eyed at times.
Jaswant Singh: Forgive me but that is a very strange question. I have been 30 years in the organisation; I was one of its founder members. When the party was founded I was with it.
Mr (A B) Vajpayee was the first president of the BJP--along with (L K) Advaniji they kindly invited me to be one of the junior officer bearers. After 30 years, to be terminated suddenly through a telephone call was not the most pleasant of political experiences. But that has happened
Rajdeep Sardesai: Would you say that what has troubled you more is not the fact of your expulsion but the manner it was done?
Jaswant Singh: I don't want to comment on that now--it is past, it is over now. I have really not been told by anybody as to why am I being expelled.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Are you saying that you had no inkling at any stage in the last few days that you could face expulsion. The BJP did boycott your book release three days ago.
Jaswant Singh: I don't know, I didn't feel any boycott. I had copies of it (the biography) sent to Advaniji, who had met me at another function and where he kindly said I can't come to your book launch because I have to be elsewhere.
He had confirmed the book's copy had reached him, so if there was disapproval in receiving or attending the launch he would have perhaps told him. I expect that he would have.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Mr Advani at no stage gave you any indication that you could be expelled or that the party disapproved of what you had written?
Jaswant Singh: I am afraid not. I do not want to hold this as a charge against anybody. He is the senior political leader of the country; he is the senior-most leader in the BJP. I am sure he must have reflected on it and he must have compulsions only he can answer. But this book, in reality, got finished almost two years back.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Why didn't you publish it two years ago?
Jaswant Singh:At a function to launch Advaniji's book, I was invited to be one of the speakers and there I had mentioned that I was writing about Jinnah. Thereafter, I mentioned to both Mr Advani and Rajnath Singhji that my book is ready and I would now like to launch it.
Upon which Rajnath Singhji said please don't do so until the state assembly elections are over. I deferred to his views and then the same situation repeated itself during the Lok Sabha elections. Seventeenth of August was not my choice--it was the day my publishers were first established. They wanted to do it (release book on August 17th) for sentimental reasons.
Rajdeep Sardesai: But the fact that the book has postponed over a period of time, does not it suggest the BJP expected some reaction from the Sangh Parivar to a senior leader writing on Jinnah. Jinnah, after all, is the anti-thesis of the akhand bharat (undivided India) thesis the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) swears by.
Jaswant Singh: Whatever their reasoning is for them to answer, but as far as I am concerned I didn't relate it in this fashion become somebody in some organisation has reservation. There is another point that troubles me. Have come to a situation in the country where thinking, research, reading, writing, discussing, debating, disagreeing on issues, on written material is taboo. It would be a very sad India; it would be a very dark India.
Rajdeep Sardesai: But others would say that in hindsight to write on an contentious issue while you are in public life may have been a mistake.
Perhaps politicians cannot write on contentious issues while still members of political parties, particularly ideologically driven parties like the BJP.
Jaswant Singh: I don't agree with that. I don't agree that we can only do creative writing. If one is able to combine political activism along with writing--Pandit Nehru wrote his Discovery of India while he was still in prison. I don't agree with the notion or thesis that people who are active in politics are not to write.
Rajdeep Sardesai: I have read your book and it's a fine book. But the trouble is that it’s about Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who always be in the Indian context demonised, particularly by the RSS.
Do you believe it is the RSS which has pushed the BJP today to have you removed. Your equation with them has never really been a comfortable one.
Jaswant Singh: Isn't it for the BJP to answer that? How am I in a position to answer what reasons motivated them to pick up the phone...and tell me that you are expelled? It is for really them to answer--I don't get want to involved.
Rajdeep Sardesai: The BJP has much to answer, but I will come back to it again. You have been uncomfortable with the RSS, for example in 1998 A B Vajpayee wanted to make you the Finance Minister of the country. The then Sar Sangha Sanchalak of RSS, K S Sudharshan, stepped in and didn't allow you to become Finance Minister.
Have you been uneasy being a member of the Sangh Parivar or have you been uncomfortable with this RSS-BJP equation?
Jaswant Singh: I have never been a member of the RSS and I have never hidden the fact that I am not a member and cannot at this age of my life ape to be a member. At age 15 I was a cadet at the academy. I have been lifelong a soldier.
Rajdeep Sardesai: You said today that the party of which you were a founder-member has changed in 30 years. What is that troubles you in this change?
Jaswant Singh: In 30 years time organisations, people change. I think the signal aspect of change that has come, which I have shared with my colleagues, including the RSS,--that what has changed in the nature of the BJP is the taste of power. Up till the extent of struggle for power, the BJP was an organisation of flame--like purity. Power tarnished it.
Rajdeep Sardesai: When did this change take place? When the BJP was in power?
Jaswant Singh: The powers were distributed between the centre and the states, and with power came inebriation of power. Not realising that essence of power is self-restraint--essence of power is really knowing the limits of power.
Instead of the BJP being an instrument of total service--committed service to the country--it became an instrument of seeking power. Up to a certain level that is the signal change. Even Advaniji has addressed this in meetings and forums.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Basically you are saying that the BJP is no longer a party with a difference. The BJP, today, is like any other party driven with factionalism, with no democratic decision making. It is that which has troubled you, is it?
Jaswant Singh: Yes, that has troubled me. I cannot disagree with what you have just said.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Would all that has happened today--an expulsion of a senior leader over the phone--if A B Vajpayee were the BJP leader today?
Jaswant Singh: I would rather not enter down that lane. Mr Vajpayee is now very ill. He can understand what is being said; he hears reasonably well...
Rajdeep Sardesai: How would have Mr Vajpayee felt today? Is the BJP moving away from the sense of tolerance Mr Vajpayee represented?
Jaswant Singh: I don't know, I can't say. I don't want to cause pain to Atalji. To answer that you need to reflect on the state of the NDA. It was the political creation of the genius Atalji had.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Do you, on the hindsight regret writing the book? Do you think you should not have written it?
Jaswant Singh: Oh no, I do not regret writing the book at all.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Is this the end of the road Jaswant Singh, the politician? You're now the MP from Darjeeling. Will you now be a full-time author unaffected by party ideology?
Jaswant Singh: It's not the end of my road as a politician but certainly I am not bound to a political party. I have a responsibility towards Darjeeling and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. With them I shall consult and will act on how they will advise me. In a certain sense, it's the beginning of a new road.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Rajnath Singh, BJP party president, much junior to you, makes a phone call and asks you to leave. What does that tell you about Rajnath Singh as a party president and Advani, your old friend? Do you feel betrayed by Advani and think Rajnath is a weak man?
Jaswant Singh: I didn't say betray and did not use the adjective you used for rajnath Singh ji. Good luck to them both
Rajdeep Sardesai: Have you lost a sense of respect for them?
Jaswant Singh: Good luck to them both.
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