Jaswant146;s book timing blunts BJP edge

Controversy may have done a lot of good for Jaswant Singh8217;s A Call To Honour, but his party is far from amused.

Controversy may have done a lot of good for Jaswant Singh8217;s A Call To Honour, but his party is far from amused. The reason: It has taken the sting out of the BJP campaign on national security, shifting the focus from Mumbai blasts to the Kandahar swap.

A senior party leader told The Indian Express, 8216;8216;For the first time during the last two years, we felt the going was really good for us to put this government on the mat. Our people were gearing up to take on the UPA in Parliament on the very first day of the session for neglect of national security through a motion on the Mumbai blasts. But, I guess the Congress would turn the tables on us by charging us with surrendering to terrorists in December 1999.8217;8217;

The BJP, according to him, could have benefitted from the time lapse, but Singh8217;s book had revived the memories of the Kandahar deal. 8216;8216;How can we defend Singh travelling in the same plane as Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Umar to Kandahar?8217;8217; he asked.

BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley today dodged all questions from the media on Singh8217;s revelations, his stock reply being: 8216;8216;I haven8217;t read the book.8217;8217;

However, another senior party leader felt the book launch today was rather ill-timed. 8216;8216;Jaswant Singhji could have advanced the release by at least a month,8217;8217; he said, adding that 8216;8216;the media was also looking for stories in June and there wasnothing happening apart from Rahul Mahajan.8217;8217;

Sources in the BJP pointed out that an angry Atal Behari Vajpayee had refused to share the dias with L.K. Advani at a public rally at Lucknow in the course of the latter8217;s Bharat Suraksha Yatra 8212; the provocation being Advani8217;s hint at a press conference at Pune on April 11, 2006 that he differed with his Cabinet colleagues on the Kandahar deal. Advani had said: 8216;8216;I don8217;t want to comment on it after so many years, but I had said within the government what I wanted to say at that time itself.8217;8217;

After Advani, it is Singh who has reminded the public about it. One has to wait to see how Vajpayee responds to this.