Will fight for genuine causes: Sinha

Ranchi: Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, who resigned from the BJP last week, said that while he wasn’t a “habitual offender”, he would continue to raise “genuine” issues and, therefore, go ahead with plans to embark on a nationwide campaign against the threat to democracy under the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Reminded by The Telegraph about his earlier criticism of senior party leader L.K. Advani for praising M.A. Jinnah at his latter’s mausoleum in Lahore in 2004, and now describing the present political climate as worst than the Emergency of 1975, Sinha was candid.

“I may be a rebel, but (I am) not a habitual offender. I will always revolt for a genuine cause. But, making an unwarranted hue and cry is not my nature,” the senior BJP leader said.

Justifying his observations on the state of the nation, Sinha referred to several issues, like, the recent press conference held by four judges of the Supr-eme Court to allege that the apex court was not functioning smoothly, the Prime Minister’s reluctance to reach out to the Opposition to save the Budget session of Parliament that was disrupted for most of the days and the “poor” functioning of the Election Commission.

He also spoke of a bureaucracy that was “doomed” and the media that was allegedly be-ing remote controlled by the official machinery.

“All four pillars of democracy, the legislature, executive, judiciary and Press, are at stake. The government is being charged with trying to save rape accused in the Kathua and Unnao cases,” Sinha said.

On the poor state of the economy, he said the poor health of banks, escalating unemployment and farmers’ suicides exposed the hollowness of the Modi government’s claim that the Indian economy was the fastest growing in the world. “The investment graph is slipping down,” he commented.

Asked whether he had ever thought about how his rebellion may affect the political future of his son, Jayant, a minister in the Union government, the senior leader said that Jayant was free to chart his own course.

“When I quit the IAS in 1984 to join politics, Jayant was a student and everyone in my family told me that I had taken a wrong decision,” he recalled.

Sinha joined the IAS in 1960 and was forced to proceed on central deputation after locking horns with then Bihar chief minister K.B. Sahay. Later, Sinha became principal secretary to veteran socialist and former Bihar chief minister, the late Karpoori Thakur.

Sinha held important portfolios, like external affairs and finance, in governments headed by Chandra Shekhar and Atal Behari Vajpayee. He was also leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha and headed the Bihar unit of the BJP.

Courtesy: The Telegraph