Meanwhile, media reports claimed that the BJP high command has asked Shanta Kumar to “observe restraint” in view of his explosive letter to the party chief Amit Shah.
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Shanta praised the leadership of Narendra Modi and efforts of Amit Shah for expanding the party and wrote: “Now, we expect you to make the BJP a strong and effective organisation”.
Kumar has in his stern letter written to the BJP president stated that the Vyapam rip-off in Madhya Pradesh has “made us all bow our heads in disgrace”.
He also referred to Rajasthan and Maharashtra, when he suggests the need for a “Lokpal” to “keep a check on leaders in government”, without mentioning Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje being caught in the Lalit Modi scandal, or Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde being accused by the opposition of a scam. “But it seems he has been carried away by the propaganda of the Congress”, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy said. And I stand by every word of my letter.
“When the Jan Sangh was formed, the emphasis was on value-based politics. Whatever he has said or written, we completely disassociate with Mr Shanta Kumar’s version”, Rudy said.
He is believed to have written the letter on July 10, but posted it on Facebook just a day before the crucial Monsoon Session begins.
Mr. Kumar said he has expressed his view and pain to the party president.
“From Rajasthan to Maharashtra, people started pointing fingers at us”.
The 80-year-old former Union Minister and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, who is now a member of the Lok Sabha from Kangra, said in his two-page letter that the allegations had eclipsed the celebrations to mark the many achievements of the Narendra Modi government in its first year in office. The entire party is having to pay the price for this. “The party is paying price for it across the country today for this”, he said.
He said then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s personal image and the record of his government’s achievements became known all over the country.
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In his letter, he also told Shah that history will never forgive the party if it did not live up to people’s expectations as BJP was their last hope. He said some people in the party would surely have come to know about them at some time and may have also discussed it amongst themselves, but in the absence of an institutional mechanism, no action was taken in these matters in time.
