Sunday, July 25, 2010

Swatantra Party and Jaswant Singh


Mr Jaswant Singh said in a interview with IE.


COOMI Kapoor: You are one of two senior leaders of the BJP who is not from a Sangh background. How did you get into the party?


The first party I joined was Janata Party. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was then the leader of the Jan Sangh. He asked me to join the Jan Sangh but I had difficulties doing that. Then, Rajmata Gayatri Devi of Jaipur asked me to join the Swatantra Party. I knew Minoo Masani and Rajaji were in the party. I had to tell Rajmata Gayatri Devi that I couldn’t join the Swatantra Party. She was quite irate and asked me why not. I told her there were too many princesses in it! Post 1975, I joined the Janata Party and when the Janata disintegrated, I went to the BJP. That was the long and short of it.


Manoj C G: What will be the topic of your next book?


It’s a book on Rajagopalachari. I think Rajaji is a rather neglected figure of Indian politics. He is an extremely wise man, quite a remarkable figure, he had great foresight and his political life is really a commentary on those times.

No comments:

Post a Comment