NEW DELHI, 29 June 2005 — Former external affairs minister and senior Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha was sacked from the post of party spokesman yesterday, said a party leader.
“The panel of BJP spokepersons has been reconstituted by party President L.K. Advani, former Law Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters in New Delhi. He said he and party colleague Sushma Swaraj would be the two spokesmen for the BJP, without giving any reason for the changes. Asked to specify Yashwant’s role in the BJP henceforth, Jaitley said he would continue to be a member of the party.
Apparently. the BJP decided to take action against Yashwant for his critical remarks over the functioning of Jharkand Chief Minister Arjun Munda. Party sources said Yashwant’s removal was the first in a string of disciplinary steps to be taken against the senior BJP leader for talking against the party in public.
Yashwant, a member of the upper house from Jharkhand, may be asked for an explanation and could also face more severe action such as expulsion.
Earlier, Yashwant had attacked Advani when the latter resigned in the wake of a controversy over his praise of Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He had expressed doubts whether Advani would be effective as leader of the opposition in the Parliament after his resignation.
The 68-year-old former bureaucrat, a relatively late entrant to BJP not strictly wedded to its core ideology, had once enjoyed close proximity to former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as well as Advani. He had plunged into politics in 1984 as a Janata Dal member. Besides being the external affairs minister in the Vajpayee government, he had also served as the finance minister.
