Today, Shatrughan Sinha, who has often defied his party line on various issues, ended his Twitter outburst with the following message: “Hope, wish and pray that all those people who matter in our party ponder over what has been said by Mr Yashwant Sinha and remedial action is taken soon, sooner the better. Long live BJP/NDA. Jai Hind!” Obliviously, this didn’t go well with BJP leaders and some of them asked for both the Sinha’s resignations. BJP is on radar of its allies and own party leaders in the recent past.
Both Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha have been making comments and criticising the government from day one; none of them ever spared any occasion to attack Modi or his government but yet no one ever had guts to show them doors. These two politicians always remained in limelight for one reason or the other. Irony is that Shatrughan Sinha could not solve problem in his constituency and he is talking about solving the country’s issues. A saying goes “with age one has to become wise”; here it is the other way. Shatrughan Sinha had failed as a minister during Vajpayee’s government reign. He would not show up in the Parliament or come prepared to answer questions. As a health minister he did very little.
Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, a Lok Sabha member recently acclaimed that the BJP would be able to live up to the expectations of the people only if it ceased to be “a one-man show and a two-man army.” He is a senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He entered politics by contesting in a by-election opposite Rajesh Khanna. Sinha quoted in an interview that his biggest regret in his life was contesting election against his friend Khanna. Khanna won the elections by beating Sinha by 25,000 votes but however, he was hurt and never spoke to Sinha thereafter. Sinha did try to rebuild his friendship with Khanna, however that never happened till the latter’s death in 2012. He won the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar during the general elections, 2009. He defeated another cinema celebrity Shekhar Suman who is also a Bihari. Out of a total of 552,293 votes polled, Sinha received 316,472 votes. He won the seat in the subsequent Indian general elections, 2014, as well. He became a cabinet minister in the third Vajpayee ministry from the 13th Lok Sabha, holding two portfolios, the Department of Health and Family Welfare (Jan 2003-May 2004), and the Department of Shipping (August 2004). As of May 2006, he was appointed as the head of the BJP Culture and Arts Department. He was given many portfolios but there is nothing much memorable or worth talking about his contribution to Indian politics.
The another Sinha is Yashwant , who resigned from the Indian Administrative Service in 1984 and joined active politics as a member of the Janata Party. He was appointed as the All-India General Secretary of the party in 1986 and was elected Member of the Rajya Sabha in 1988. When the Janata Dal was formed in 1989, he was appointed as the General Secretary of the party. He worked as the Minister of Finance from November 1990 to June 1991 in Chandra Shekhar’s Cabinet. He became the National Spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party in June 1996. He was appointed as the Finance Minister in March 1998 and as Minister for External Affairs on July 1, 2002. In the Lok Sabha elections of 2004, he was defeated in Hazaribagh Constituency. He re-entered the Parliament in 2005. On June 13, 2009, he resigned from the post of vice-president of BJP. And then there is nothing much to his kitty.
Modi never wanted these two Biharis to occupy a ministry and waste the opportunity. Yashwant Sinha is never a Modi fan. He projected himself above the India that’s why he goes to Kashmiri separatists with Congress including each and every place where BJP avoids going. His son Jayant Sinha is in Modi ministry and against his father. All Sinhas in BJP are from Bihar and they are on the same page. Modi ignored Shatru, who has become his own party ‘shatru’. The noteworthy point is that all these ministers who have guts to call spade a spade are attacking BJP and Modi of today. Yashwant Sinha, who in a damning column, slammed both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the economic “mess”, who kept both the party’s as well as the national interest in mind. Shatrughan Sinha supported each word written by Yashwant Sinha , he feels that Yashwant Sinha is a true statesman and a tried and tested man of wisdom, who has proven himself as one of the best and most successful Finance Ministers of the country. Sinha made comment that Yashwant has “shown the mirror” to the government on the economic condition of India and has “hit the nail right on the head”. He said it would be “childish to be dismissive of or make light of his utterances”. He went on saying that his opinion is that everything written by Yashwant Sinha is entirely in the party’s and national interest. He repeated Modi’s very own sentences that the nation is bigger than the party. National interest comes first.
Anyways, criticising government or its policies is not bad, it’s a healthy thing in democracy but Sinha is attacking every move that is taken by his party. He is shouting since day one against BJP and its policies. Calling Yashwant his “elder brother”, Sinha criticised the BJP leaders, both Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, who are extremely learned and experienced intellectuals. Shatrughan neither has any expectation or interest in being given a post (or ministership), especially with the next elections less than two years away. Sinha suggested that the party must make a “point-by-point” rebuttal of Yashwant’s charges, and not ascribe motives.
The two are very senior leaders, and the party has to take humiliation from them in time and again. They won’t resign so easily and showing them the doors from the party would be further embarrassment of BJP, right now it’s like “keep mum and take the pain”.
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