Mumbai, Aug 31 (Inditop.com) The Shiv Sena has expressed concern over the “deteriorating” political health of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the wake of the recent crisis in the party and said it seemed to be down with “swine flu”.
“Wonder what is wrong with the BJP these days. It is either afflicted by the deadly swine flu or some other such disease,” Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who is also the editor of the party mouthpiece Saamna said in an editorial Monday.
He said that with the kind of news emanating from everywhere, it appears that the BJP’s condition is like the parrot of Emperor Akbar.
“Its eyes are closed, it does not eat or speak, does not breathe, but it’s alive… and will take wings soon,” since nobody had the guts to break the news to the Emperor, the editorial pointed out.
It said that even Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat had advised BJP leaders to stop infighting, put its house in order and said that the party would rise again from the ashes.
“In short, even Bhagwat has said that the Emperor’s parrot is not dead, it has only (got a) cold, stopped eating, breathing, etc, but it will rise from the dead like a Phoenix,” Thackeray said in the editorial.
The commotion in the main opposition party began with the expulsion of senior leader and former cabinet minister Jaswant Singh for praising Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah in his recently released book.
After that, senior MP Arun Shourie lashed out at the party leadership and dubbed the BJP a ‘kati patang’ (a kite adrift).
Citing several examples to illustrate that ups and downs are a part of politics, the Sena chief advised the BJP leadership to come out of the shock of the rout in the May 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
Taking an indirect dig at the current party leadership, he pointed out that it was different in the times of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the late Pramod Mahajan when there were regular exchanges between the leaders of the two allies.
“But now, when I was ill, leaders like (L.K.) Advani and Rajnath Singh came down to see, that’s all,” the editorial noted, indicating a virtual breakdown of communication between the two parties in recent times, a fact that has been privately acknowledged by top leaders of both parties.
He said that the two parties came together solely on the issue of ‘Hindutva’, which has not been diluted so far.
“We read that the BJP is collapsing everywhere. But it is our friend, at least we think so… And we hope that it does not collapse,” it added.
On the other hand, he pointed out that the Sena is growing by leaps and bounds with the support of Shiv Sainiks and the sons-of-the-soil.
“We pray to Goddess Jagdamba that the dead parrot springs back to life and takes flight with the Shiv Sena’s Garuda,” Thackeray concluded.
