The Hindu : Front Page : BJP suspends Khurana

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Sunday, Aug 21, 2005

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BJP suspends Khurana

Neena Vyas

Action taken for `sack Modi' demand The action came within hours of Mr. Khurana writing to Mr. Advani, demanding that Narendra Modi be sacked.

Madan Lal Khurana... let us get rid of the stain

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party president L.K. Advani on Saturday ordered the suspension of the former Rajasthan Governor, Madan Lal Khurana, from the party for "gross indiscipline." Mr. Advani stripped him of all official duties on the recommendation of the general secretaries. Party leaders hinted that Mr. Khurana could be expelled if he did not apologise.

The disciplinary action came within hours of his writing to Mr. Advani demanding that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi be sacked and that the party follow the example of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who apologised to the nation for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

A former Delhi Chief Minister, Mr. Khurana referred to the Supreme Court's observations against the Gujarat Government and said the party could not wash away the stain of the Gujarat riots without publicly apologising for the incidents.

He distributed copies of his letter at a press conference here earlier in the day.

Later reacting to the suspension, Mr. Khurana said he was "prepared to face any action." He was yet to receive a show-cause notice. In the evening party leaders said that as several leaders were not in town now, the notice asking him to respond within 15 days would be served by Monday.

Announcing the suspension, party spokesperson Sushma Swaraj said, "Mr. Advani has stripped him of his duties as prabhari (political affairs in-charge) of Delhi, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir with immediate effect."

She said Mr. Advani had consulted general secretaries Arun Jaitley, Pramod Mahajan, Rajnath Singh, Sanjay Joshi and Om Mathur as well as vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu and "they recommended Mr. Khurana's suspension, which he decided to accept."

On Mr. Khurana's suggestion that he had the backing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leadership, Ms. Swaraj said, "No Sangh leader can ever encourage indiscipline. Therefore, to say that the Sangh leaders are telling him to do this would be wrong."

Ms. Swaraj said that when Mr. Khurana, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Babulal Gaur and the former Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, demanded Mr. Advani's resignation for his "Jinnah is secular" formulation, the chapter on the standoff between him and the RSS was considered closed after an agreement was worked out. "That is why no disciplinary action was taken then," she said.

While Mr. Khurana indicated that he would respond to the notice when he received it, the BJP's central leadership hinted that he could be forgiven if he apologised unconditionally — as did the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti after she publicly dared Mr. Advani to take action against her.

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