Shatrughan Sinha Tells Subhash K Jha Why He Felt The Need To Float A New Party

It’s party-time! When and how did the Rashtra Manch happen?

It was an idea floating in some of our restless heads  for a while. You know how hard it  is for me to keep a  secret(laughs). Special mention must be made of individuals like  Ghanshyam Tiwari and K C Singh who made this possible.But I  had to keep the plans under wraps until we actually launched the Rashtra Manch. And now here we are.

How does it feel?

To have a forum ,a platform where I can  express myself and most importantly, be able to work towards bettering the country, is extremely liberating. I can’t tell you how free I feel. Khuli hawaa mein  saasns lene ka mazaa hi kuch aur hai(the thrill  of breathing in the pure oxygen  is something else).

But your parent party  the BJP never  stopped you from speaking?

They never allowed me  to do anything other  than speak. I seemed to serve no purpose  beyond being an outspoken member of   my parent party. I felt my parent party was  giving me the treatment given to a stepson. Quite honestly I felt stifled.Yashwant Sinhaji is someone I’ve respected and been associated with  for a long time.When he came up with this idea of a non-political forum I  was completely for it.  You see,  we are not  a breakaway party.We are  not rebelling from our parent party.We are  not fence crossers.

So what  is the purpose  of the Rashtra Manch?

Let me first tell you what is NOT its purpose. We are  not fighting any election  in the Rashtra Manch.So in that sense we are not a political party. Our motive for  coming together  is  to bring real  change and reform in the social order. I am  not  just talking about lip service. But real changes.

Like what?

 Like  addressing the financial issues , looking into the needs  of the poor. We will be addressing farmers’ suicide, unemployment , internal security and external security. I feel too much attention is being focused on irrelevant  issues to digress attention from actual problems. A  case  in point  is the Padmaavat controversy. It was highly unnecessary and totally uncalled-for.

Would you be  allowed to address real issues?

Why would we not be allowed? Doesn’t our honourable  prime  minister, the country biggest and strongest  action  heroNarendra Modiji want changes and reform to happen? We’ve floated this party to strengthen his hand, just as JaiprakashNarain and V P Singh had floated a  party while being  a part of  the RSS.

Are  you confident that your new party would be able to make a difference?

We  have our hearts and goals in the right place. We’ve likeminded people in the party. Political  optimists   like Pavan Varma,Dinesh  Tiwary, Renuka Chowdhary, Som Pal are with us.We feel empowered and  hopeful.

But  the Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao has accused and Mr Yashwant Sinha of  crossing all limits?

Iss saagar(ocean) may kitni gehrayee hai yeh toh sabko maloom hai.