Bharati returns, says secret letter ‘fake’

Less than 48 hours after returning to the Capital from her sojourn in the snow-bound Himalayas, BJP’s suspended sanyasin Uma Bharati fo...

Less than 48 hours after returning to the Capital from her sojourn in the snow-bound Himalayas, BJP’s suspended sanyasin Uma Bharati found herself in hot water today with a news weekly publishing a ‘‘secret’’ letter purpotedly written by her, which Bharati insisted was ‘‘fake’’.

Excerpts from the letter addressed to L.K. Advani appears in the latest issue of Hindi Outlook and contains damaging remarks against a range of second-generation BJP leaders, including Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley, Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj and M.A. Naqvi. Bharati, who met party chief Advani this evening and apologised for her behaviour at the BJP office-bearers’ meeting on November 10 which had led to her suspension, insisted she had not written the letter. Bharati told reporters she was consulting her lawyers for action against the publication.

Whatever be the provenance of the letter, it is set to make the turf war in the BJP much murkier, sources said. While the Bharati camp feels the letter is the handiwork of her ‘‘enemies’’ to prevent her imminent re-induction into the party, her detractors have no doubt that she has written the letter though she may not have ‘‘leaked’’ it.

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Bharati, who met both Vajpayee and Advani yesterday and followed it up with another meeting with Advani today, is keen on returning to the BJP. In her ‘‘public’’ letters, she had gone out of her way to praise the BJP’s Big Two while obliquely attacking many of the younger leaders. In the last letter she couriered to Advani, she had also mentioned a ‘‘secret’’ letter for his eyes only.

Many feel the letter published in the magazine is the ‘‘secret’’ letter she had referred to. Unlike her other letters, the latest one is unsparing in its attack on party colleagues.

The letter comes at a time when moves towards a rapprochement between Bharati and Advani had gained ground. At the BJP national executive in Ranchi last week, there was no mention of her suspension and no move to formally endorse or revoke it. However, Advani told reporters that he would sort things out once she returned from her ‘‘vacation’’.

Bharati lost no time in trying to do the same. She not only met Vajpayee and Advani but even told reporters that she had given the BJP chief a letter of apology. ‘‘I have left the final decision to Advani,’’ she said.

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Bharati’s letter of apology is a climbdown since she had earlier maintained that the party too owed her an apology and that she did not regard her behaviour as an act of indiscipline.

The RSS too is believed to have played a role in facilitating her return. The RSS and the VHP, who consider Bharati as their own, were unhappy with her public outbursts but broadly supported her campaign against the ‘‘rot’’ that has set into the BJP.

But the latest letter — unless quickly proved to be fake — could delay her return to the party fold and strengthen the anti-Bharati mood widely shared by her second-generation rivals, sources said.