NEW DELHI, June 8: India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) voted on Wednesday to turn down the resignation of party president Lal Kishan Advani, but its two senior leaders, both foreign ministers in the previous government, locked horns in shaping a bitter dispute.
Former minister Jaswant Singh backed Mr Advani on Wednesday in his praise for the Quaid-i-Azam in Karachi last week while his former cabinet colleague Yashwant Sinha took the opposite view, even asking Mr Advani to consider resigning from the Lok Sabha leadership.
The BJP Parliamentary Board which met for five hours on Wednesday to discuss Mr Advani’s offer to quit unequivocally rejected the resignation. Mr Advani said he would give his response on Thursday.
“The meeting appealed to Shri Advani to continue to lead the party, which he has so ably led in the past. Shri Advani represents the best values in public life, a BJP statement said after the meeting which was attended among others by former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
“He has scholarly articulated the debate on nationalism in the past few decades with rationality, logic and with powerful idioms. His contribution to our ideology is unparalleled,” the statement said.
The meeting condemned “the use of highly objectionable language” by Vishwa Hindu Parishad extremists, the former supporters of Mr Advani, the BJP said. “These statements have lowered the level of public discourse. Such outbursts, indecent protests and abusive language adversely affects the strength of the nationalist movement in the country. These statements also go against the very ethos of Hinduism.”
In a major criticism from within the BJP, senior party leader Yashwant Sinha, who has the support of the Hindu revivalist rahstriya Swayamsewak Sangh said Mr Advani’s comments on the Pakistan founder were ‘unnecessary and avoidable’.
“Unfortunately, Advani ji’s remarks diverted attention from the comments made by (Pakistan President Pervez) Musharraf and his Foreign Minister on Jammu and Kashmir. I, therefore consider his remarks in Pakistan were unnecessary and avoidable,” Mr Sinha told reporters in Ranchi.
Asked whether Mr Advani should remain the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mr Sinha said: “Advani has resigned as BJP president; he should also consider whether he can be an effective leader of the Opposition.” Regretting the controversy kicked up 58 years after partition, the former minister said: “There was no need for a controversy on this ground as Jinnah will forever remain in our history as the person responsible for partition. No certificate can erase the impression that India and Pakistan are two nations as a result of partition.”
Asked whether Mr Advani’s resignation would create a vacuum in the BJP, Mr Sinha said, on the contrary, the party would emerge stronger.
NEW DELHI, June 8: India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) voted on Wednesday to turn down the resignation of party president Lal Kishan Advani, but its two senior leaders, both foreign ministers in the previous government, locked horns in shaping a bitter dispute.
