Shourie brands BJP a pvt firm

According to sources, the party may axe him, a step that the BJP’s collective leadership recently took against Jaswant Singh.

In a direct and blistering attack on party leaders, including president Rajnath Singh, Shourie described them as “humpty-dumpty”  who were using different yardsticks to address issues like “discipline” or “indiscipline”.

“The BJP has become a mutual-protection and projection society” , he told newspersons and sought the RSS to take control of the entire party.

He defended expelled party leader Jaswant Singh, saying the former external affairs minister in the NDA government was axed “without his book containing 669 pages being read”.

The book was released at 7.30 pm and action was contemplated an hour later, he said. Singh’s book could be answered by writing another book, he said adding “expulsion is not a correct step”.

Shourie said he has been drawing attention of  the party for over two years on serious issues, but “nothing happened”.

The BJP leader opposed the central leadership’s decision to remove Uttarakhand chief minster Maj Gen (retd) B C Khanduri but its attempt to replace Vasundhara Raje as Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan.

“They should resign taking moral responsibility but we will not resign because we have already taken moral responsibility,” he said sarcastically alluding to the incumbent leadership.

He accused six journalists planting stories on behalf  of certain party leaders.

The party reacted strongly with BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy saying Shourie was “inviting action” by making such statements. Rudy charged Shourie with making comments to gain publicity.

Shourie’s criticism of the BJP leadership has been preceded by the resignation of Sudheendra Kulkarni, former aide to Advani, over the state of affairs in the party.

Responding to Rudy’s statement that since his (Shourie’s) tenure as Rajya Sabha member was coming to an end he was keen on returning to his previous “journalistic occupation”, Shourie said “I look after my child and my wife. That is full-time occupation for me besides my writings.”