Vajpayee’s death news kept on hold for PM’s I-Day speech: Sena

Seizing the opportunity to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its ally, the Shiv Sena, has raised questions about the announcement of the death of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Sena spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut claimed Vajpayee had passed away before August 16 but his death was not immediately announced so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could address the nation on Independence Day from Red Fort. In his weekly column ‘Rokthok’ in the party mouthpiece “Saamna” on Sunday, he wrote on ‘What is Swarajya?’

He wondered whether the news of the death of the BJP stalwart was kept on hold on account of PM Modi’s I-Day speech. ‘Vajpayee died on August 16, but from August 12-13, his condition had been deteriorating,’ stated Raut.Vajpayee died at 93, after a long illness, at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, which declared the date of death as August 16. Again on Monday, Saamna accused the BJP of giving a “political colour” to the ‘asthi visarjan’ (ritual of the immersion of ashes) of Vajpayee, saying the “staged” affection made the great leader look small after his death. The BJP had decided to immerse his ashes in various rivers across the country.

In an editorial laced with sarcasm, the Sena said while no importance is given to veteran BJP leaders, their ashes are treated with importance. A true obituary to a person is to carry forward his thoughts, instead of projecting “staged” affection towards him, it said. Instead of the ritual being performed by one party, all the parties should have been involved, making it a national event, said the editorial. Parties would have been honoured to accept the urns and immersed the ashes. Mamata (Banerjee) from West Bengal, the Shiv Sena from Maharashtra, Navinbabu (Patnaik) from Odisha and the Akali Dal in Punjab could have been taken along (in the ritual),” the editorial opined. “Congress president Rahul Gandhi would have participated in it and the world could have seen Atalji’s greatness and popularity,” it said.

“Jawaharlal Nehru (country’s first prime minister) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were leaders beyond political boundaries. But giving political colour to the ritual immersion of his ashes was not a good thing,” the Marathi daily said. It said the seriousness with which Vajpayee's ashes should have been carried and immersed, was missing. Some even raised the urn containing Vajpayee’s ashes as if it was a victory trophy. Some (BJP) ministers and party officials had the expression of winning a world cup trophy, it quipped.