Should the Bharatiya Janata Party undergo a surgery, chemotherapy or some medicine to recuperate?
The question, thrown at party president Rajnath Singh by a journalist as he rose from the podium from where he was addressing a protest rally by the party’s traders’ cell here on Tuesday, caught him off guard. “Who says that? That is crazy,” he said.
What Mr. Singh, however, was not told — and he was unaware — was that earlier in the day Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat told reporters in Jaipur that it was for the BJP to decide what steps it should take to help it come back to health. “It is up to the BJP to decide on surgery, medicine or chemotherapy,” Mr. Bhagwat said.
Some party functionaries, however, said the journalist was referring to an earlier remark by BJP leader and former actor Shatrughan Sinha that there was need for “surgery” to get the BJP back to health.
No sooner had Mr. Singh questioned the wisdom and sanity of anyone suggesting that the party needed some radical “medical intervention,” television channels began implying that Mr. Singh had described Mr. Bhagwat as crazy.
The ‘story’ was taken further when some journalists rushed to address the same question to senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi. Mr. Joshi, however, apparently knew about Mr. Bhagwat’s comment. He said: “Why ask me? I am the patient. You should ask the doctor.”
