By IANS,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday indicated it would act against party leader Arun Shourie after he described it as a “kati patang” (adrift kite).
“It (BJP) is in my view a kati patang,” Shourie told the NDTV television channel, triggering furious responses from a party that is already reeling under a crisis sparked by former cabinet minister Jaswant Singh’s sacking.
Shourie also told NDTV that BJP president Rajnath Singh was a “humpty dumpty” and urged the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological parent, to stay out of policy decisions.
Shourie’s unexpected comments have added to the acute discomfort of the BJP, which is facing one of its worst moments since it was defeated in the Lok Sabha election this year.
BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Shourie’s remarks about the party and Rajnath Singh were shocking.
Another party spokesman, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, called them “completely unacceptable” and said the party would take cognizance of what Shourie had spoken.
“He is sermonizing, he is angry,” Rudy added.
Shourie, however, found immediate support from Sudheendra Kulkarni, former advisor to BJP stalwart L.K. Advani who quit the party Sunday.
Kulkarni has also spoken in support of Jaswant Singh, a Lok Sabha MP and a former foreign and finance minister who was sacked from the party last week over a book authored by him in which he praised Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.