Advani has 'game plan' for Uma: Jaitley

Hinting at a possible rehabilitation of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti, party general secretary Arun Jaitley on Saturday said BJP chief Lal Kishenchand Advani has a 'game plan' for her.

"Advani has a game plan as far as dealing with individuals in concerned. He has to keep her. He has been playing as per the game plan. She has written to him on a constructive note," Jaitley said in an interview to Karan Thapar's 'Hard Talk India' programme on BBC World.

In a spirited defence of the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Jaitley also said Uma felt and was "entitled to feel" that she had a role in the state.

"That may be as chief minister, as party leader or worker...please don't tear her statements out of context," he said when asked about Bharti's repeated statements against the party president.

He, however, cautioned that "responsible and important members of any family, including ours, have to be more careful when they speak to the media so that they don't have to make clarifications every now and then."

While declining to comment on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief K S Sudershan's controversial remarks about former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Jaitley said: "Performance of the government or prime minister has to be judged on facts not on the basis of one isolated statement which is subsequently clarified in the context it is made.

"Let us not go by individuals or adjectives individuals may use...how does the world and this country regard Vajpayee...as a good prime minister? How did he tackle national security, economy, how did he run a coalition government for six years?

"We are proud of his [Vajpayee's] performance and we think he did exceedingly well."

He said while he was not privy to the conversation between the RSS chief and Vajpayee pertaining to the former prime minister's son-in-law, he did not recollect a single instance where a "charge of this kind of even marginal evidence has been shown."

On Sudershan's remarks that Vajpayee should pave the way for younger leaders, Jaitley said he did not consider it as a "resounding slap on Vajpayee's face. When debate went on after Nehru who, it certainly was not a slap on the face of Pandit Nehru. It was an eminent reality which people did discuss."