BJP veterans launch scathing attack on Modi in wake of Bihar defeat

“It shows that those who would have appropriated credit if the Party had won are bent on shrugging off responsibility for the disastrous showing in Bihar,” said BJP veterans L.K. Advani, M.M. Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha in their statement targeting the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The BJP bigwigs asserted that the principal reason for the latest defeat was the way the party has been ‘emasculated’ in the Delhi polls last year.”

“A thorough review must be done of the reasons for the defeat as well as of the way the party is being forced to kow-tow to a handful, and how its consensual character has been destroyed,” the statement added. In a veiled attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, the statement said that the review of the loss must not be done by those who  managed as were responsible  for the Bihar campaign.

Modi has been under severe criticism for his party’s defeat in Bihar, besides growing religious intolerance in the country after Modi rose to power following general elections in May.

Dozens of authors have returned India’s highest literary award in protest over the rise in violence, which they fear includes the recent murder of a secular intellectual, while petitions demanding government action have attracted signature from scientists, actors and filmmakers.

The government has been accused of failing to rein in Hindu hardliners, while its ministers have at times appeared to be inflaming the debate.

Critics say Hindu hardliners and their radical elements have become more emboldened since Modi’s landslide victory last year.