NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 6 Breaking his silence on the Uma Bharati episode, former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today denied her charges that the BJP was ‘‘anti-OBC’’ or that it had been ‘‘hijacked’’ by certain leaders for their own benefit, giving a clear indication that the party was not willing to budge on the sanyasin’s expulsion.
On the sidelines of a function at the BJP headquarters today, Vajpayee said, ‘‘The party is moving forward at its own pace. It is going ahead with the goal in front of it. Nobody has hijacked anybody.’’
Bharati had described Vajpayee and BJP president L K Advani as the pilot and co-pilot of a plane full of party workers which had been hijacked by ‘‘terrorists.’’ Her targets had been the party’s second-rung leaders, particularly Arun Jaitley, Pramod Mahajan and Venkaiah Naidu.
Vajpayee also said there was ‘‘no truth’’ to the anti-OBC charge. On Bharati’s criticism of Advani’s comments on Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Vajpayee said, ‘‘That chapter is over. It is not proper to discuss it any further.’’
Vajpayee’s comments only confirmed the party leadership’s decision not to keep any door open for Uma’s return soon. The expelled sanyasin had said yesterday that she would appeal to the party’s disciplinary committee against her expulsion.
Dismissing the talk of an appeal, BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said, ‘‘The BJP Parliamentary Board is the party’s highest decision-making body. There can be no appeal against a Supreme Court ruling.’’ The hardline stance of Vajpayee and Advani, who were regarded as being favourably disposed towards Bharati, underlined the absence of even the slimmest chance of a ‘‘presidential pardon’’—the only recourse left to a petitioner indicted by a ruling of the apex court.
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