Yashwant Sinha Protest: Quest For Survival Or Concern For Nation?

Is BJP stalwart and former Finance Minister of the country fighting his last political battle by waging an open war against his own party leadership? If his recent abortive attempts to salvage his political stature are any yardstick to gauge his fate, the answer may be in the affirmative.

The past bears testimony to the fact that Sinha has been questioning the role of his party high-command time and again ever since he was sidestepped by the Modi dispensation at the Centre on one ground or another. Whether it is the party’s humiliating defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections in 2015 or the issue of introduction of Goods and Service Tax (GST), Sinha has unequivocally expressed his displeasure. However, he had to eventually succumb to the conflict of interest he faced within the party. He is believed to have retracted his offensives against the party leadership under duress in the backdrop of the possible threat to the political career of his minister son, Jayant Sinha.

But, coming out with the decision ‘I need to speak up now’, Sinha appears to be articulate in getting his view across that the die is cast. The major showdown by Yashwant Sinha against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the staggering economy has put the Modi Government at the centre in quandary. The party high-command could neither afford to ignore the allegations levelled by Sinha in the larger interests of the country nor can it remove Arun Jaitley with the fear of possible threats of reprisal within the party. Although Sinha has explicitly attacked Jaitley for inept handling of the economic situation, the move has had collateral impact on factors pertaining to both the political and personal credentials of the powers-that-be.

In his write-up published in a national English daily, Sinha has put a question mark on the decision of the Prime Minister on how he could allocate a ministerial berth to Jaitley when he lost the Lok Sabha elections? Sinha cited the example of the former Prime Minister and party patriarch Atal Behari Vajpayee who did not make Yashwant Singh a minister when the latter had lost the elections. Mincing no words, Sinha expressed anguish over the way he was ignored in the party too. He claimed that he was still waiting for an appointment with the Prime Minister for the past one year.

Incidentally, on earlier occasions too, he vociferously criticised the party leadership for miserably losing the Bihar Assembly elections in 2015. He had overt support from party stalwarts such as LK Advani, Shatrughan Sinha and Murli Manohar Joshi in his self-styled crusade against the party. He had held Modi and Amit Shah responsible for the party’s humiliating defeat in Bihar. But he subsequently retracted his move against Modi and Shah presumably to save his son from the wrath of the party high-command.

Indeed, the party has tried to placate Sinha again by proxy. The party preferred to use junior Sinha who wrote a counter-offensive article - ostensibly at the behest of the party high-command - in another national English daily, but Yashwant Sinha refused to relent this time. The party high-command appears to have been left with no option except to tide over the situation by swinging a section of strategists - political and non-political as well - into action to negotiate with Sinha.

However, Yashwant Sinha has also been left with not many options except either to continue with his recalcitrant stand for Jaitley’s removal from the Finance Ministry in the garb of the worsening economic situation or lose his political credentials by compromising with possible lucrative offers.

If well-placed sources privy to the BJP high-command are to be believed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had talks with L K Advani to evolve some amicable solution of the crisis. Sinha who supposedly belongs to the Advani camp of the party is believed to have registered his protest against Jaitley only after obtaining a nod from his political mentors and friends. If his all-time friend and cine star-turned-politician, Shatrughan Sinha explicitly stood by him in the anti-Jaitley stir, LK Advani and MM Joshi preferred to remain non-committal to the crisis.

Meanwhile, Sinha is learnt to have consented to be chief guest at a function organised by Congress leader, Manish Tewari in Delhi. Although the event has nothing to do with the party line as Tewari is to release his book and Sinha had consented prior to his controversial article against Jaitley, it is claimed that the article was carried ahead of the event with a strategic move to prepare the ground for attending a function organised by the opposition leader. However, Sinha was not available for his comments on the issue while being preoccupied with giving ‘bytes’ to different channels on his published article for obvious reasons.

More, in a damage-contentment exercise, the centenary ceremony of Patna University has, however, been identified as the tentative venue to cash-in on the situation. As per well-placed sources at the Patna University, Modi is, on October 14, all set to grace the occasion that is to be attended by Sinha too. Although Modi is said to have confirmed his itinerary, Sinha has been withholding his response to the invitation for the ceremony so far, sources informed.

To top it all, Yashwant Sinha has nothing to lose; he is neither an MP nor could he be included in the Union Ministry as per the diktat of Modi to keep octogenarian leaders of the party out. But, the Modi Government in particular and the BJP in general may suffer a major loss of face while protecting the interests of Jaitley anymore; it is not only Yashwant Sinha who has questioned the locus standi of Jaitley to be Finance Minister of the country after losing the Lok Sabha elections, but prominent leaders of the party such as Subramanian Swamy and Cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad have also attacked Jaitley for flaws in economic policy of the country and his role in the alleged financial irregularities during his tenure as President of the District and Delhi Cricket Association (DDCA), respectively. Incidentally, Jaitley has had impeccable credentials to survive tirades while his adversaries within the party such as Swamy and Azad had to eat humble pie. The question, however, remains unanswered; will Jaitley have the last laugh?