New Delhi: Without mentioning the fall of the Congress government in Puducherry this week, BJP veteran and former CM of Himachal Pradesh Shanta Kumar said he feels “ashamed” to see his party getting involved in “sale and purchase of MLAs”.
“I feel ashamed that my party got involved in the sale and purchase of MLAs. People made the BJP the world’s largest party due to its value and idealism, but it has now become power-hungry,” Kumar wrote in his autobiography released Tuesday.
At the launch of the autobiography, titled, ‘Neej Path Ka Avichal Panthi’, Kumar also cautioned the BJP that by practising “unprincipled politics, governments can be changed but not the society”.
Quoting former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Kumar said, “We came to politics to change the society and not the government.”
“Society will change only by practising value-based politics. Atal ji used to say ‘Chal-kapat ki rajneeti se sarkarein toh badli ja sakti hain, par samajh nahi (Governments can be changed through politics of deceit, but not society). I have practised politics of principle and I wish my party, which has the power to change politics of India, doesn’t deviate from politics of principle,” he said.
In a chapter on ‘Nation Building, Jana Sangh and BJP, and my last wish’, Kumar wrote that the BJP should not compromise with its principles and values. “When we worship Swami Vivekananda, we should follow the path of Vivekananda,” he wrote.
Kumar also wrote that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should bring in laws to curb the use of black money in elections and bar criminals from entering politics.
“Our government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have got tremendous mandate and if he can remove Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, Modi should also bring a law to ban use of black money, which is diluting the principle of politics,” he wrote.
During the launch, an emotional Kumar said, “I have achieved everything in life. The party has given me enough in public life. I am standing at the fag end of my life, but I have one wish that my party doesn’t leave path of politics of principle.”
Modi’s ‘historical work’ of scrapping Article 370
The former Himachal CM, who was the rural development minister in the Vajpayee government and represented Kangra till 2019, wrote that scrapping of Article 370 was found impossible at one point of time.
“(BJP’s predecessor) Jana Sangh had campaigned for it, its founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee sacrificed his life for it, I went to jail for eight months, but Narendra Modi has made historic work by removing 370,” he wrote.
“This is historical work and there is no challenge to PM Modi and his leadership. This opportunity doesn’t come every time. This is the time to make Indian politics value-based and on principles. This can be done by Narendra Modi,” he added.
“First, he should make law to bar criminals from entering into politics and after that, laws should be formed to ban use of black money in politics. It should be written in the law that if anybody is found guilty of using black money, he will be punished. The BJP can implement these things because the party has a profound majority,” Kumar wrote.
‘We’re following western countries’ model of politics’
Veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, who was one of the speakers at the event, said “we’re following the same model which western countries have adopted”.
“Shanta Kumar ji mentioned mukhyadhara of politics (the main stream of politics), which Vivekananda and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya have referred to. But when there is no dhara, where is the question of the main stream of politics? The stream of politics has lost, Deen Dayal ji’s ‘ekatma manavaad’ has lost.”
“We are following the same model which western countries have adopted. Our philosophy is to tap the market, consumption and GDP. But the market can’t answer every question of life. We are exporting natural resources, GDP is exploiting mother land, Uttarakhand tragedy, floods are due to this exploitation. We have forgotten the path of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya,” Joshi said.
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