Still a Divided House

If you’d imagined the intervention of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) would put an end to public spats in the fac­tion-ridden BJP leadership, you  know better. The signal that leaders won’t stop embar­rassing rival groups in pub­lic has come from party presi­dent Rajnath Singh this time.

If you’d imagined the intervention of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) would put an end to public spats in the fac­tion-ridden BJP leadership, you  know better. The signal that leaders won’t stop embar­rassing rival groups in pub­lic has come from party presi­dent Rajnath Singh this time. “If anyone dares to praise Mohammed Ali Jinnah—who was responsible for the Partition of our country, and all the horrific incidents that fol­lowed—strict action will be tak­en against them,” Singh said at a workers’ conference in Rohtak, Haryana. While ex­pelling Jaswant Singh for his book that praises Jinnah, the BJP brass had declared that it was actually Singh’s re­marks against Sardar Patel that got him the boot. The Gujarat government toed the same line while banning the book. The idea in both cas­es was to make a distinction between Advani and Jaswant, both of whom had praised Jinnah. But Rajnath Singh’s warning against praise for Jinnah puts both Jaswant Singh and LK Advani on par. Rajnath’s term as party pres­ident ends in December and Advani has been asked to go, but the transition will not come without collat­eral damage.

About The Author

Jatin Gandhi

Jatin Gandhi has covered politics and policy for over a decade now for print, TV and the web. He is Deputy Political Editor at Open.