BJP leaders ignore Advani's blog, Cong targets Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has endorsed veteran leader L K Advani's blog saying it "reflected the true essence" of the BJP through a tweet but it seems most of its senior leaders, including party chief Amit Shah, are not in agreement!

However, the Congress and other opposition parties are highlighting the blog in which Advani said that BJP never considers its opponents anti-national, in what seen as an attack on the leadership that picturise the adversaries in such a manner. Congress president Rahul Gandhi led the Opposition attack, saying Modi has kicked Advani out.

A Modi tweet usually is greeted with competitive retweeting by other leaders but Shah, Advani's proteges like Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj and senior leaders like Rajnath Singh have given a miss to the Prime Minister's remarks.

An analysis of the tweets by Cabinet ministers showed that only seven of them, including J P Nadda, Smriti Irani, Uma Bharti and Piyush Goyal, retweeted Modi's remarks.

Jaitley, however, told reporters that what Advani has said has been the BJP's "clear policy" and that his party never considered rivals as anti-nationals. "When Venkaiya-ji, Rajnath-ji and Advani-ji were party presidents, this statement was given time and again," he said.

Interestingly, the BJP's official twitter handle has also not tweeted about it while the party's media cell emailed Advani's blog to media persons at 10:30 pm on Thursday, four-and-half hours after Advani's office sent it to media directly. Usually, the BJP media cell used to circulate Advani's statements.

While the BJP leaders are giving the blog, which is written against the background of BJP's Foundation Day celebrations on April 6, a miss, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, "BJP talks of Hinduism. In Hinduism, the guru is supreme. It talks of guru-shishya tradition. Who is Modi's guru? Advani. Modi just kicked Advani out."

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti tweeted that Advani was late, "BJP Patriarch questioning current brass for terming entire opposition as anti national is surprising. Not a word was uttered since 2014. Instead its finally said when BJPs tenure at Centre is almost over. Wish he had spoken up all these years. Badi dair kar di mehrbaan aate aate."

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the blog made a "stinging indictment" of politics of Modi and Shah. "BJP patriarch and Modiji’s political guru, Shri L K Advani in a stinging indictment to demeaning politics of Modi-Shah duo, founded on hurling abuses on political opponents, has exposed Modi-Shah's duplicity and hypocrisy," he said.

"While we politically disagree with many of Advani's views, his deceiving disciples – Modi-Shah – have unashamedly refused to even acknowledge the stinging indictment of their arrogant working style," he added.

Former Finance minister P Chidambaram tweeted, "...It is an indictment of Mr Modi and his government" while another senior leader Kapil Sibal said, "Advani: Never regarded those who disagreed with us politically as enemies or anti-national, only adversaries. Under Modi-ji BJP's thought processes have been both : Changed and Maimed. Listen Modi ji to one who helped you in your journey to Delhi."