Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley has expressed confidence that sulking party patriarch lK Advani will “eventually support” the elevation of Narendra Modi as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for 2014 lok Sabha polls.
In an interview to Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate programme, Jaitley acknowledged there were “two alternative views” within the BJP and that the decision to anoint Modi was taken by “an overwhelming majority in the party” keeping in view “larger interests”.
“We weighed all possible options. We weighed the opinion of our supporting constituency and cadre...We cannot defy the opinion of our rank and file or even that of our supporting constituency. When the party takes a decision, you have to factor in what is the collective wisdom, what is the pull coming from cadre and supporting constituency,” Jaitley said.
The BJP leader said that most of his partymen feel that the next general election “besides being an anti-incumbency election is also a leadership referendum and here Modi does give us an advantage”. “We had a choice between postponing a decision, facing a criticism that we are unable to decide or taking a winning decision and we have taken a winning decision. Advaniji being a seasoned and senior politician will eventually support every decision that the party has taken,” he said.
Jaitley, however, refused to answer questions about the possibility of dropping Modi and the party settling with somebody more acceptable to allies after elections if it failed to get the required numbers, saying, “I am not going exercise the option of discussing any hypothetical situation.”
“We have to see the changing chemistry of the country ...If either we did not have (decided) a leader or decided something else, was there a possibility, in the pre-election scenario of a very large number of allies coming back to usIJ That is an assessment and a call we had to take. And the call was that it doesn’t appear likely. Therefore, the BJP’s assessment is that the stronger the BJP is, the stronger will be the NDA...With Modi in the front seat, the possibility of our getting the largest number of seats is there,” he said.
Jaitley also dismissed the contention as to why Modi does seek apology for the post-Godhra riots in 2002 and noted that the Gujarat Chief Minister had repeatedly said that hang him if he was guilty and that if he was not guilty this scar should not keep hanging on with him.
“A person against whom no evidence is found certainly must not be tried by media, when not even a shred of evidence has been found against him. He has repeatedly said that hang me if I am guilty...If I am guilty, should I just get away with an apologyIJ ...When you accuse him of engineering riots, you can’t expect him to plead guilty by apologising,” Jaitley said, adding that Modi has demonstrated by his action that he is not against the minorities and that everyone including minorities should judge him by his performance and action.
He also downplayed accusations levelled against Modi by jailed Gujarat cop DG Vanzara, saying the comments coming from the imprisoned man should not be taken as gospel truth.