New Delhi:
Ten months after his expulsion, Jaswant Singh is back in the BJP. The veteran leader was welcomed back by the man he criticised the most after his exit - LK Advani.
Here's the full transcript of his interview to NDTV:
NDTV: We all remember the time you broke down after your expulsion and you spoke about the hurt you felt on receiving the call from Rajnath. Do you feel vindicated today?
Jaswant Singh: I think vindication would be an inappropriate word Barkha because if I go into the etymological origins of this word, then it really leads you to a kind of aggressive attacking. It's not so much vindication, as I said in the press conference that my sense of hurt and humiliation has been more than mollified by the graciousness and generosity of what Advaniji did in inviting me to speak to him, to meet him, and to wonder whether we could treat it as a closed chapter. It is now really a closed chapter.
NDTV: But Mr Singh what about your comments on Jinnah? You called him secular. You said he was unnecessarily demonised? We remember that L K Advani lost his Presidency of the BJP and you were thrown out because of your comments on Jinnah. Do you still stand by your comments on Jinnah?
Jaswant Singh: Well, the book stands for itself. Ofcourse I am the author of the book Barkha. I cannot disown the book. It's like a child, it's there for everyone to see and read, and ofcourse either to agree or to not agree. Jinnah as an ambassador of Hindu Muslim unity is not my comment but was a comment made by a great Indian, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and repeated by the late Sarojini Naidu. This is the reality, these are facts, historical facts. They simply don't go away if we refuse to agree with them, you needn't agree with them but that is the reality.
NDTV: It's been almost a year and if you remember when we met right before your explusion, you raised some very fundamental questions about the party's philosophy in that interview. You said, and I quote - "what is Hindutva?" You said that the word had not existed in the lexicon of the BJP till very recently. You said it did not exist in the time of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. Do you still raise that question today considering that sections of your party uses the word to define its ideological positining?
Jaswant Singh: No, not today. I didn't in the press conference but it certainly merits for us to understand because I know we didn't have this word or use it in the earlier years of the BJP, when it was Jan Sangh. It is a later addition and it would be useful for everybody to have clarity on what Hindutva really stands for.
NDTV: You also said that you believed that extreme elements within the Sangh Parivar had dented the image of the BJP. Today as you return to the party that has been your life, does that still worry you?
Jaswant Singh: No, it's not so much as extreme elements usurping the party, as that the central reality of Indian politics is that it is the middle ground of polity - an integrative, accommodative, and an all inclusive political approach that the NDA represented, which I believe were six very useful and successful years of governance. Either of the extremes, left or right extremes, is anathema,I believe to india's core. I also believe that india is fundamentally secular only because of what it is today and it must remain so.
NDTV: What about the influence of the RSS? The RSS stopped you from becoming Finance Minister. Many believe that till the BJP's umbilical cord is not severed from the RSS, it will continue to have problems of ideological autonomy. Do you worry about the influence of the RSS on BJP?
Jaswant Singh: I don't worry so much. It's an expression that gets voiced, and I think now the RSS has also made it very clear that the BJP is an organization on its own and it has to run itself and there is no day to day interference I'm told. I have been out of the party for more than ten months now, I should perhaps reacclimatize and learn a little more.
NDTV: I want to remind you of something you said earlier about LK Advani. You were the Minister who went to Kandhar at the time of IC 814 and you said that it was not true when Mr Advani said that he was not aware of the details of the decision. You even said that you covered for Advani during Kandahar, for what you believed was Advani's partial truth. Have you settled the issue of Kandhar with Mr Advani since?
Jaswant Singh: I think all that is now a closed chapter. I can't continue to live in an event which is over 10 years old. None of us can afford to do so, the party has to move forward, individuals have to move forward. And I did have a sense of hurt and a sense of humiliation but the manner in which Lal Krishna Advani and the graciousness with which he treated the whole thing and the parting of our ways, I am really indebted to him, as I am indebted to Gadkari. He came to my house, he sat with me, he came again today to escort me to the party office... these are gestures that I value because these are gestures that are not so much to massage my ego as demonstrating a degree of courtesy and respect to a fellow colleague in the party.
NDTV: As you return the party that has been your life, what would be your advice to the BJP going forward into the future? Remember you said that the BJP in danger of living in yesterday, that it needed to be a party of today, a current party? What would be your counsel about how it can become a modern party?
Jaswant Singh: I think the party must recognize that it has a great responsibility. I do not believe that the present UPA is conducting itself towards fulfilling its responsibility in a manner that is really impressive or in any sense for national good. it is therefore the duty of the BJP to become a party that addresses the challenges of today and of tomorrow, and to do that it must sort out whatever difficulties it has in the administration or in the conduct of its affairs whether internally or as NDA.