Former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Tuesday questioned why senior party leader L K Advani kept silent for a month on his expulsion from the party before saying that he had disfavoured the disciplinary action.
Asked to comment on Advani's remark on Monday that he did not favour Jaswant's ouster, Singh said, "It is to be examined in what context or reference he (Advani) had said this and that too after a month."
To a question if Advani took U-turn or got softer towards him, Singh retorted, "Go and ask him."
Advani had said that he did not favour Jaswant's expulsion, contradicting BJP's assertion that he was part of the decision.
Singh, who was speaking to mediapersons at the residence of senior BJP leader Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, ruled out his return to BJP or joining Congress.
"My path is different. There are rumours. I am not going either to Congress or returning to BJP. I do not find any reason to go back to the party that expelled me," he said.
He, however, said he would not retire from politics. "I am very much in politics. I am not resigning from politics."
Singh said it was "not necessary to align with a person or a party."
Criticising the party, Singh said political parties are "now entangled in castes and have become a monastery of castes.....BJP has also become a castes monastery."
Earlier addressing scores of Rajput caste members at Shekhawat's house, Jaswant Singh said there "was a need for self, voice, self-respect, and self interest."
Apparently hinting at Rajput caste's unity, Singh said no society or caste could sustain without self-respect. "We have given a thought to the fact that none is representing Rajput samaj--neither in BJP nor in Congress," he said.
Recalling Shekhawat's early days in politics, Jaswant Singh said "no one like Shekhawat and his period of fifties is left in Lok Sabha or state assembly. What was the character then? What was the behaviour then?...It is altogether different now."
"There is a very delicate line between swabhiman and abhiman (self-respect and ego). Rajput samaj should understand it," Singh added.
Image: Former BJP leader Jaswant Singh
