A day after he purportedly slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, veteran BJP leader Yashwant Sinha on Sunday denied making the statements and claimed he has been misquoted.
Meanwhile, in the backdrop of the alleged controversial remarks by Sinha, BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh, Ravindra Kushwaha demanded the expulsion of Yashwant and Shatrughan Sinha for making “baseless statements” against the Government and the party after they were not given ministerial berths.
Taking a dig at Yashwant Sinha, Kushwaha said the former Union Minister was “not satisfied” with his son Jayant Sinha being made the Union Minister of State for Finance. The MP from Salempur in Uttar Pradesh also attacked actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha and said that he was giving “self-suicidal” statements since Bihar polls.
Kushwaha said the party should expel both the leaders without any delay as they were “frustrated” on not being made Ministers and were giving biased statements against the Government and BJP.
Sinha, who had held important portfolios of Finance and Foreign Ministers, in the Vajpayee Government, contended his remarks in Goa on Saturday had been “completely misunderstood” and misinterpreted.
According to the news agency PTI, the comments Sinha made at a conference indicated that he was critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, without naming him.
At a panel discussion in the ‘Difficult Dialogues’ conference in Dona Paula, Sinha was quoted as having said: “The people of India will consign him to the dust, you just have to wait for the next elections”, without naming Modi.
“It is complete misinterpretation. Anyone who has reported this, has completely misunderstood what I have said,” Sinha said on Sunday.
During the discussion, Sinha was asked about the present day culture of “I, me, myself” and what was the use for dialogue in such case.
The former Minister in the NDA dispensation reportedly replied that elected representatives to Parliament and Assemblies have to continuously go back to the people who elect them.
Sinha then referred to the Emergency of 1975 and said the country knew what happened to the “most concerted effort in our country to still the voice of dissent”.
“We all know how the people of India reacted. So, there would be aberrations here, aberrations there, we might be very concerned about the present situation because some of these things according to us are taking place.
“But the great Indian society will take care of it and will consign to the dust those who do not believe in dialogue in India. The people of India will consign him to the dust, you just have to wait for the next elections,” Sinha was quoted as saying so by the PTI.
On Sunday, the BJP leader said the reference to Emergency has nothing to do with the present Government.
Sinha together with senior BJP leader lK Advani, MM Joshi and Shanta Kumar had aired their views against the functioning of the party in last “one year” after BJP’s poll debacle in Bihar in November, 2015 charged those in charge of “emasculating” it.