Advani's apology to Sonia stuns BJP

Bhartiya Janata Party leaders are quite upset over their senior leader Lal Krishna Advani rushing an apology letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi without any consultations within the party. Though no one is ready to speak out on Advani's letter, insiders said his letter has triggered a crisis in the party.

Their contention is that the BJP had outsourced investigations into the black money stashed abroad to a four-member 'task force' and as such Advani had no reason to apologise for their findings, more so when neither he nor any other BJP leader had seen the report before releasing it.

Among those who have reportedly conveyed their unhappiness to Advani at putting the party in a bad light included Opposition leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley and senior leader S S Ahluwalia.

The report, titled 'India's corruption and crime money parked in Swiss bank and other tax havens' was released at a National Democratic Alliance press conference at Advani's residence in New Delhi on February 1, and Sonia Gandhi had reportedly sent a protest letter to him for the insinuations against her, asserting that she held no foreign accounts.

Party sources insist that it was not a party report but one submitted to the party by a task force, for which the party cannot be held responsible. "Even if Advani wrote back expressing regret as the working chairman of the NDA, he should have first discussed it in a meeting of the NDA partners who were any way meeting on Monday," his detractors said, wondering what was the hurry for the party stalwart to send the apology.

Moreover, they said, he did not even refer to Sonia's letter at a BJP office-bearers' meeting in Kolkata on Tuesday and as such the media flashing his apology came as a bombshell for them.

For that matter, BJP sources said there were many controversial claims in the report that cannot be owned up by the BJP. Moreover, they were not surprised by the mention of Sonia Gandhi in the report as its authors included Chennai-based chartered accountant S Gurumurthy, who is a known Gandhi family baiter.

Advani was spellbound when he attended the BJP's core committee meeting on Friday. A visibly upset Advani did not even acknowledge the greetings from his fellow leaders.

First to go on record and confirm the apology was BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad. He said Advani had written to Sonia Gandhi expressing his regret for causing any hurt to her and her family and pointed out that such allegations had been aired in various quarters for years and the same would not have found their way into the party report if she had denied
them earlier.

Meanwhile, Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed welcomed Advani's apology, but there came a tongue-in-cheek attack from Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni that she had thought Advani had "retired" leaving space for younger people like Swaraj and Jaitley who are now the Opposition leaders of the two Houses of Parliament.