 "Subramanian Swamy")
Instructions from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s central leadership led to the cancellation of a Sunday event in Mumbai where Subramanian Swamy was to be chief guest.
The event on Emergency was organised by the BJP's Maharashtra unit. The central leadership had also nixed a similar plan by its Tamil Nadu unit to host the party's Rajya Sabha member for a speech on the Emergency. Swamy had attacked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and other bureaucrats. Middle-rung party leaders had for the past couple of days tried to convey to the media that the leadership disapproved of Swamy's comments.
However, they were also pointing out that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah could make Swamy fall in line. Before the PM ticked off Swamy in his interview to a private news channel that was broadcast on Monday, the BJP leadership, led by president Amit Shah, had got party units in Mumbai and Chennai to cancel events featuring Swamy.
On Twitter Swamy termed reports that Shah hinted to the Maharashtra party unit to cancel the event as "rubbish". Swamy tweeted: "No one asked me not to participate, much less the party President."
According to party sources, one senior leader, who has until now been a fervent supporter of Swamy, was asked to convey to Swamy the message that he should restrain his attacks.
But the leadership found it easier to ask state units to cancel the event than request Swamy to not attend these.
The Mumbai event to mark the 41st anniversary of the Emergency was to take place at a private college in South Mumbai. Swamy was to be the main speaker. Maharashtra BJP chief Raosaheb Danve and Mumbai city president Ashish Shelar and other leaders had been invited to the event.
On Sunday, local BJP sources had attributed the cancellation of the programme to Swamy's inability to reach the city due to unavoidable circumstances.
But party sources in New Delhi said the events were cancelled by the central leadership. Sources said it was a message to Swamy that his attacks on Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and other finance ministry officials, as well as disparaging remarks on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley were not welcome.
At an event in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, Swamy had steered clear answering questions on some of his recent tweets. Today, Swamy turned to the scriptures on Twitter. He quoted Lord Krishna to tweet:"The world is in general equilibrium. A small change in one parameter effects changes in all variables. So Krishna advised: Sukh Dukhe...."
