Shanta let off after warning

The BJP high command is set to let Union Rural Development Minister Shanta Kumar off the hook over charges of indiscipline against him. The high command had served him a show-cause notice after his 8216;8216;uncharitable8217;8217; remarks in the visual and print media following BJP8217;s defeat in the Himachal elections.

Sources disclosed that BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu had given 8216;8216;a strong warning8217;8217; to Kumar to restrain himself in future. When asked the reasons for this liberal view of the case in contrast to a practical censure of Kumar by both Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna.

Advani, sources said that the high command did not wish to precipitate a fresh controversy close on the heels of the Jharkhand episode. 8216;8216;All these developments after all get us negative publicity,8217;8217; sources added.

Kumar called on general secretary organisation Sanjay Joshi at the party headquarters this evening where they discussed measures needed to tone up the party in the hill state.