After keeping a low profile, it's felt that you're asserting yourself and seeking the limelight.
After keeping a low profile, it's felt that you're asserting yourself and seeking the limelight.
Too much is read into my actions and words. Even when I don't seek attention, I get it. Ministers keep travelling abroad but when I decide to go to the UK and Israel, I am in the news. The visit is covered even before it takes place!
Throughout these two-and-a-half years, I've concentrated on my ministry. I've been trying to do my best. There have been ups and downs because of the situation in J&k and they do weigh on my mind. I felt so bad after the Amarnath massacre. I got the news when I was in the Rajya Sabha. I had not heard the details but I do believe in ministerial responsibility. So I wrote on a piece of paper that I propose to announce my resignation and passed it on to Jaswant Singh. He took me aside, spoke to me and persuaded me that resigning wouldn't hurt the militants, it would hurt the government. Fifteen days later when I mentioned my desire to resign, it was misrepresented. One newspaper headline said everyone is quitting the government.
There is speculation over Vajpayee's successor and the fact that he failed to appoint a No. 2 for the time he'd be in hospital after the surgery...
There has been speculation only because some people believe Atalji is unwell. They do not realise it is essentially a problem in his knee. Once he recovers from the surgery, he'll be fine. There is no need to talk of succession.
There is also talk about the Atal-Advani relationship.
We've been together right from the first day in Parliament. He and I lived together in Delhi at 30, Rajendra Prasad Road. In '57, when Atalji first entered Parliament, Deendayal Upadhyaya viewed him as the crucial person on whom to build the party, then the Jana Sangh. Similarly, what I did in November '95 (announced Vajpayee as BJP's prime ministerial candidate) was based purely on my assessment. I took everyone by surprise when I made this announcement at a public meeting in Mumbai's Shivaji Park. But thank god, I made it then; two months later came the hawala charges. And that was a right decision. Atalji and I've been together for long. There are no differences between us.
You recently criticised Jaswant Singh for accompanying the released militants to Kandahar...
I never intended to directly attack Jaswant. I rang him up even before the broadcast of that interview and told him I had said something which may be misconstrued. He accompanied the militants as he felt someone with political authority should be there in case things went wrong and decisions had to be made. I felt it was unfortunate someone had to travel with the militants.
Is it a deliberate strategy for the RSS to play the role of opposition?
No. There is no such strategy. The swadeshi ideologues have their own views on economic affairs. But it does not mean we will follow whatever they say.
But you recently described the RSS' relevance to the Vajpayee regime as akin to Mahatma Gandhi's to the Nehru regime and Jayaprakash Narain's to the Janata regime.
How can we disown an organisation with which we have been associated since our childhood? The RSS has a moral influence on the Vajpayee regime just as Gandhi had a moral influence on the Nehru regime. Nehru respected Gandhi but did not agree with him on everything. Similarly, I respected JP but did not agree with him on everything.
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