Subhash K Jha (DNA; February 13, 2015)

BJP’s self-confessed loyal soldier and unflinching loyalist Shatrughan Sinha is mighty sobered by his party’s massive drubbing in the Delhi elections.

“I wish some of my party members who have been ignoring the experienced elder members of our party (he means LK Advani, Yashwant Sinha, Murli Manohar Joshi) would wake up to the call. I tried to warn my party members about the danger ahead. But I was told to shut up since being an actor I, apparently, didn’t understand politics. I hope those in my party, who understand politics, would now have an explanation for what had happened in Delhi,” said Sinha hours after the BJP’s defeat in Delhi.

Apparently, many prominent BJP members and supporters were appalled when Kiran Bedi’s name was finalised for chief ministerial candidate. “Experience and wisdom go hand-in-hand. To ignore both is a folly,” he says.

The American media has been mocking prime minister Narendra Modi’s elitist expensive-suit politics as opposed to Arvind Kejriwal’s populist cheap-muffler politics. “I cannot comment on this. Suffice to say for now that Kejriwal has displayed chaal, charitra, chehra, chintan in the best possible light, and he has won the hearts of the Delhi electorate. This is a warning for us. We cannot afford another setback like Delhi,” he says.

For the uninitiated ‘chaal charitra chehra chintan’ was used as a slogan by the BJP to win the Lok Sabha elections.

When asked to comment on his chances of sorting out the mess in Bihar’s politics caused by the ongoing tussle for power between Nitish Kumar and Jitan Ram Manjhi, Sinha quips, “I’ve always been a party soldier. I will continue to be the same. I am there to serve the party in any capacity.”