Rebel Khurana finds himself deserted

The reason is not far to seek. With Khurana refusing to adopt conciliatory postures, the party hinted that the veteran Delhi leader may have to face further disciplinary action if he continued his tirade against the Government. And nobody wants to be seen with a rebel.

“The way Khurana is conducting himself, he cannot fit into the party,” BJP vice president Jana Krishnamurthy said minutes after Khurana vowed to raise in Parliament on April 25 the three issues he had mentioned in his letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on April 21.

The most distressing news for Khurana was that even RSS and its affiliates like Swadeshi Jagran Manch did not come out in his support, though he had taken up the issues close to Sangh Parivar’s heart.

Despite having been left in a lurch by associates, the former Union minister appeared determined to take his fight to its logical end. The issues taken up by him in the letter to Vajpayee were in tune with the RSS and BJP stand on these issues, Khurana said, before leaving for an undisclosed destination from where he would return only on May 2.

Khurana would submit a fresh notice on Tuesday to the Lok Sabha Speaker for a discussion on these issues under Rule 193. He is not submitting the original notice which four other BJP MPs had signed. “I don’t want to embarrass them,” he said.

Earlier BJP MP from Bihar, Lal Muni Chaube, claimed he was not aware that the paper on which Khurana made him to sign was a notice for a Lok Sabha debate. “Chaube is not a child. He too is a member of Parliament. Probably he would not have said so if he knew that I have withdrawn the notice signed by him,” Khurana said, adding he would collect fresh signatures including those of the allies.

He appeared hurt at the manner in which a senior party functionary like him was treated by the Prime Minister’s Office. He had tried to seek an appointment with Vajpayee from April 1 to 16 to discuss these issues, but in vain.

Khurana wrote a letter to the Prime Minister on April 17 seeking anappointment. He was given one the following day, but only for five minutes. Khurana felt that to be inadequate to discuss important issues.

Khurana said the Prime Minister told him that his Government was bound to take the decision to honour the commitment given by the previous regime. As per the agreement, the Quantitative Restrictions with European Union and Japan were to be removed in a phased manner by April 2003. But a second agreement was arrived at with the US, in which the timeframe for withdrawal of QRs was advanced by two years to April 2001, he claimed.

Khurana parried all "controversial questions" like whom he held responsible for being sacked as BJP vice-president. Khurana said that he had used all channels, including through Union Minister Arun Jaitley, to meet Vajpayee, but had failed in his mission.

Meanhile, the Congress today welcomed the issues raised by Khurana, saying that they were of a serious nature. Party spokesperson Ajit Jogi told reporters that party chief Sonia Gandhi had raised similar issues in her speech in the Lok Sabha earlier this week.

Jogi said that the fact these issues were being raised by such a senior leader of the BJP was clear enough that the Government had not been taking economic decisions in a transparent manner.