Pandya case: Advani pulls up ministers

Today Shah, along with Gujarat’s Parliamentary Affairs minister Ashok Bhatt, had an unscheduled meeting with Advani. Emerging after a 10-minute meeting, Shah refused to speak to the media.

‘‘I have nothing to say. If you want to know anything about investigations into the Pandya case, ask the CBI. They are handling the case. I will talk only when I have something to say,’’ he said. Bhatt, however, said that he had come to met Advani regarding the proposed National Law College in Gandhinagar. ‘‘That is what we talked about,’’ he said. And why was Shah accompanying him? He could only offer a wry smile in response.

Shah, representing Sarkhej assembly constituency, part of Advani’s Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency, came to meet Advani at his North Block office ‘‘to offer explanation’’ about the lapse. Sources, however, said that the Deputy PM was in no mood for any excuses and snubbed Shah.

Advani was enraged when he learnt that Union Minister of State for Home Harin Pathak had received a letter, dated February 10, informing him about the threat faced by Pandya and others, and that he had kept the information from the Centre. It was Pathak who first came under Advani’s fire for not informing the MHA about the contents of the letter. Pathak had told Shah about the letter but Shah did not follow up on it and collected the letter only after the dissident leader was murdered. Advani was extremely disturbed by Pandya’s murder and had even gone on record to say that what happened to him was ‘‘unjust.’’

However, when he learnt that the state government had prior information about the threat — revealed for the first time in an exclusive Sunday Express report — he summoned his deputy Pathak and gave him a dressing down. ‘‘Advani thinks the murder could probably have been prevented had the Centre known about it,’’ sources close to him said.