Shatrughan bats for Jaswant,backs Shourie,praises Rahul

Asked whether Jaswant Singh’s expulsion was justified,Sinha said,“Yeh bade logun ki baat hai (this is an issue concerning bigwigs). Moreover,I am not a member of the BJP Parliamentary Board which took the decision.”

Sinha endorsed the views of party colleague Arun Shourie that RSS should take charge of the BJP which,he said,was presently facing a “leadership crisis”.

Sinha said Yashwant Sinha,Arun Shourie and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri—all three have called for fixing responsibility for party’s poor show in the Lok Sabha elections—were “assets for the BJP”.

Meanwhile,Sinha was all praise for Rahul Gandhi,calling the Congress general secretary a dynamic and promising leader. “He (Rahul) is hard working and his work for the common people at the grassroots level is appreciable. He has a bright future,” Sinha said. “I think the path he has chosen and the kind of work he has put in will one day bear fruit. He is a promising leader.” He,however,hastened to clarify that this was his personal view and that “no politics should be read into it”.