In this file photo, Jaswant Singh gestures during his speech on the aftermath of Kargil in New Delhi on July 20, 1999. He died in New Delhi on September 27, 2020.
Jaswant Singh’s expulsion was swift and flawless, and everyone agreed, including LK Advani, who was his close friend.
- News18.com
- Last update: September 27, 2020 1:16 PM IST
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The Shimla Ridge at seven thousand feet above sea level is the perfect altitude where the two can coexist. Lovely deodars and moss covered oaks.
After a torrential downpour in the last week of August 2009, sunlight bathed the valley as a cool, steady gale rose through the dense foliage. A steady stream of horseback rides entered Peterhoff, the abode of seven viceroys and governors general in the winter capital of pre-independence India, and was later converted into a government hotel.
The top leaders of the BJP had gathered at Hill Station to discuss the cause and implications of the debilitating defeat at the 2009 Lok Sabha.
However, a high-ranking party leader waited in his room at the Cecil Hotel, awaiting further instructions from then-President Rajnath Singh. A few hours after the meeting, the BJP informed Jaswant Singh not to drive to the meeting location, as the group had expelled him for his book on Jinnah.
The expulsion was swift and flawless, and everyone agreed, including LK Advani, who was a close friend of Singh.
Some felt the expulsion was triggered more by political compulsions – that a section of the BJP leadership wanted to downplay the investigative report on the party debacle and Singh was a mere scapegoat.
Singh, the former Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance and Defense, regretted something when he left Shimla for Delhi. Party did not even give her the opportunity to present her case.
It was also the beginning of the end of the Vajpayee-Advani era in the BJP. When the leaders of the next generation pushed themselves to position themselves as claimants of royal power.
It was not the first time the former army officer-turned-politician had faced off against the BJP hardliners. A close associate of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Singh’s appointment as finance minister was once vetoed by the RSS, when former RSS Deputy Secretary Madan Das Devi entered 10, Race Course Road, seeking a more ‘swadeshi FM ‘to fit the RSS agenda.
From Jasol in the Barmer district of Rajasthan, Singh entered Rajya Sabha in the early 1980s. It was said that he was close to the former Vijaya Raje Scindhia. With the party’s rise in national politics, he became a key figure in drafting the party’s policy on foreign and defense policy. He wore the mantle after the BJP was catapulted to power in the late 1990s serving as defense, finance and outside.
After the Pokhran tests, he remained the key negotiator when economic sanctions were imposed on India. His personal relationship with former US Under Secretary of State Strobe Talbott helped redefine India’s relationship with the US in the post-Cold War era.
Singh continued to represent the Darjeeling LS seat until 2014. The party denied him the ticket in the next general election, so he decided to run as an independent. He lost the elections to the BJP candidate.
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