 India's beleaguered main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been dealt another blow, this time a scandal involving the alleged sexual high-jinks of an avowedly celibate official.
| Whoa! Caught him with a doxie, did they? |
The Hindu nationalist party is holding a five-day meeting to celebrate its 25th anniversary, but the media has instead trumpeted the resignation of Sanjay Joshi, a party secretary. Joshi stepped down on Tuesday after an allegedly sexually explicit CD with an unidentified woman made the rounds among BJP members and the media.
| And they got him on tape. It was prob'ly a setup, but he didn't have to take his pants off... |
"Keeping in view Joshi's request, he was being relieved of his responsibility till the completion of a probe," Lal Krishna Advani, the BJP president, told party leaders at their meeting in Mumbai, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. Joshi, who is also a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP's hardline Hindu backers, had apparently taken a vow of celibacy as some full-time RSS workers do.
| I'm not sure why, but I guess it's like Islam: once you sign up, there's no going back... |
The sex scandal may also overshadow the official announcement of a new party president to replace Advani, expected to take place after the close of the party meeting on 30 December. Rajnath Singh, a low-key party member, has reportedly been chosen to succeed the hawkish Advani. But it is not clear whether he will able to end the turmoil which has hit the BJP since its election defeat by the Congress party in May last year. Since then, the party has become polarised between moderates wanting the party to move to the centre, and hardliners who feel a return to the core values of hardline Hindutva (Hinduness) will win more votes. |