Vajpayee's speech omitted from BJP journal

BJP Today gives no space to Vajpayee's concluding address concerning respect elders to Dehradun conclave.

The BJP has made a surprise omission in its fortnightly journal of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's concluding speech at its national executive in which he told the party not to write off its leaders because of age.

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Apparently in disagreement with the alleged cold shoulder given to some senior leaders in the BJP over the past one year, Vajpayee told the party's national executive on its last day on September 9 that nobody should be consigned to the trash box because of old age.

In his surprise comments, quoted by several party leaders emerging out of the Dehradun conclave, the 82-year-old BJP veteran remarked that experience sharpens with age.

But BJP Today, which carries Vajpayee's speech on Vande Mataram in Delhi on September 7, gives no space to his concluding address to the Dehradun conclave.

Its editorial carried what was Vajpayee's address to a public meeting in Dehradun, referring to his comments on the party's role in creation of Uttaranchal.

Asked how Vajpayee's 10-minute concluding address to the executive got no space in BJP Today, a party official attributed the omission to what he called a possible oversight by its publishers.