Senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar leaves from MM Joshi's residence in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/MQSUbZ8MkZ — ANI (@ANI_news) December 24,

NEW DELHI: BJP veterans feel the suspension of parliamentarian Kirti Azad for attacking finance minister Arun Jaitley in the DDCA row sends the message that the party is suppressing the voices of its whistleblowers against corruption.The veterans - L K Advani , Murli Manohar Joshi , Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha - met in New Delhi on Thursday, a day after Azad was suspended for anti-party activities. Sources said the leaders thought Azad's suspension will do the BJP "more harm than good".The meeting of the BJP's Margdarshak Mandal also came shortly after Azad sought its intervention in the matter. Apart from Advani, AB Vajpayee and Joshi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah are also the members of the mentor group formed shortly after Modi came to power.Sources said Advani drove down to Joshi's residence and Kumar and Sinha joined them at noon for a meeting that lasted about an hour. The four leaders, who had virtually revolted against the Modi-Shah team after BJP's drubbing in Bihar assembly election last month, are learnt to have discussed the situation arising out of Azad's suspension.They had made a strong public statement after the Bihar poll debacle, saying the party has been "emasculated" in the last one year and was being "forced to kow-tow to a handful".Cracking the whip on Wednesday, the BJP suspended Azad, who has been leading a campaign against finance minister Arun Jaitley on alleged corruption in DDCA, charging him with anti-party activities and accusing him of "colluding" with Congress and AAP to bring it into "disrepute".The action of the BJP Parliamentary Board to suspend him from the party's primary membership with immediate effect came three days after his press conference attacking Jaitley and subsequent acts of defiance both inside and outside Parliament.READ THIS STORY IN MARATHI