Senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue M.G. Vaidya on Monday said the comments he made about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani were his “personal remarks and not the RSS’s official opinion.”
Speaking to journalists at his residence in Nagpur, Mr. Vaidya said: “I was the spokesperson of the RSS till 2003. Whatever I am saying now and [have] said in my blog are my personal views.”
“I had written in my blog that Ram Jethmalani asked for Gadkari’s resignation and in the same breath demanded that Modi be made the party’s prime ministerial candidate. Both demands came together from Jethmalani, so I wrote that the needle of suspicion points towards Gujarat, this is my personal view. If Ram Jethmalani can put forward his view, then I also have the right to put forward my view,” added Mr. Vaidya.
Mr. Vaidya wrote in his blog on Sunday that Mr. Modi was behind the campaign against Mr. Gadkari.
Asked who should be the prime ministerial candidate for 2014, he said: “I reiterate that it’s irrelevant to discuss about the prime ministerial candidate for 2014 in 2012. Even after the Gujarat elections, it won’t be decided. It will be decided only after the 2014 elections and it’s for the BJP to decide.”
“Only RSS spokespersons will be able to tell you what the RSS thinks about this issue. I wrote that the needle of suspicion points toward Gujarat. Gujarat doesn’t mean Narendra Modi. I mentioned Modi’s prime ministerial ambitions. There is nothing wrong in having prime ministerial ambitions,” said Mr. Vaidya.
On the internal strife in the BJP, Mr. Vaidya said: “The party should be united for the 2014 elections, but it does not look united at this point of time.”
