BJP MP Subramanian Swamy on Saturday sought to downplay his threat of “bloodbath” making it clear he did not intend the literal meaning of the word but only hinted at “chaos” which has not happened.
“I said I am the most disciplined person. If I was indisciplined, there would not be what they called as bloodshed. Bloodshed did not mean blood spilling. Bloodshed means there will be chaos. And I said that because I am disciplined, nothing of that kind happened,” he told a press conference here.
The BJP leader said his usage of the word was ''misunderstood'' as everyone took the literal meaning of bloodshed.
Asked about the reported unhappiness of the BJP leadership over his attacks targeting those in the finance ministry, he said, “That is what your press is saying. I don''t know.” Jaitley had counselled Swamy restraint in public course while attacking government officials who are unable to defend themselves because of office discipline.
The BJP had also distanced itself from Swamy''s attacks on Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, in whose defence Jaitley spoke strongly. Yesterday, party sources said the leadership was upset over his public comments.
Replying to questions about his “shifting” from one party to another, Swamy said there was a time late Jayaprakash Narayan used to attack the RSS and then he came to the conclusion that the organisation has evolved to a point where without it democracy cannot be restored.
He also referred to Congress bringing down the Gujral government on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination issue and later tying up with the DMK.
“I can go on giving you names, parties which held positions and then after new material comes into existence, change it. Now neither the RSS minds what I said nor am I opposed to what the BJP said about me.
We nationalist forces had to come together because there was a danger” Swamy said alleging Sonia Gandhi had tried to decalred a state of emergency in 2011-12 “cooking up this Hindu terror basis”.
Under criticism over his “waiter” jibe, Swamy made tongue-in-cheek remarks today complimenting Jaitley for his “smart” looks and ticking off Robert Vadra, who spoke of the dignity of waiters.
He said he did not target anybody and what he only wanted was politicians should not look like waiters.
“The attire comment was not against anybody. I only said politicians should not look like waiters. There is nothing wrong in it (to wear such attires). I said they should not be mistaken...thats all,” Swamy said in press conference here.
“I did not aim anybody. Actually Mr Jaitley looks very smart in the attire. He looks like an exception,” he said.
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TARGETS KEJRIWAL
Escalating his attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy today asked him to show courage to admit that he was admitted into IIT by some “skulduggery” and not competitive exams.
Citing an RTI reply to claim that the AAP leader had no rank and the mark sheet for his IIT entrance, Swamy suggested that he joined IIT Kharagpur due to his father's links as vacancies there were filled “illegally” by its managing board between 1952 and 2005.
“It has been going on regularly and Kejriwal's father was an employee of Jindal's factory.
“So the man who talks about the poor being denied the privileges and so on is himself a product of these privileges and he has never publicly owned it. It is not his fault. His father got it. But he should have the courage to admit it,” he told a press conference.
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SPAT WITH VADRA
* Robert Vadra on Saturday took a dig at Subramanian Swamy for his “derogatory” remarks about waiters and termed them “classist”, * This prompted Swamy to retort that he should concentrate on “staying out of jail” instead of making political comments
