Pratap Bhanu Mehta in The Indian Express:

“In expelling Jaswant Singh the BJP has confirmed the fears of its worst critics: that the party is nothing but a party founded on endless resentment that makes it inherently insecure and anti-intellectual. Its nationalism is not the nationalism of a thinking party; it is a pinched-up nationalism that prefers caricature over complexity, conformism over thought. The party does not understand the first thing about its self-proclaimed heroes.

“Vajpayee once wrote, mujhe itni oonchaie kabhi mat dena, gairon ko gale na lago sakon, itni rukhai kabhi mat dena. It is a measure of how much the BJP has fallen that it can now not even embrace its own. The real greatness of Sardar Patel was that he could live with difference. Despite deep philosophical differences the personal and political bond between him and Nehru remained very strong. Even their mistakes and differences were not petty. But the BJP does the amazing feat of demonstrating that even its virtues have the odour of small-mindedness.”

Read the full article: Party to differences

Cartoon: courtesy E.P.Unny/ The Indian Express

Also read: ‘Advani offers nothing creative, only resentment’