Sticking by his book on Jinnah that became the cause for his unceremonious exit from the BJP, expelled leader Jaswant Singh on Thursday rejected the charge that he had violated the party?s discipline and ideology by expressing his views on the Muslim League leader as well as Sardar Vallabhai Patel.
Returning here a day after his expulsion from the party, Singh also said that the ?resolution? on Jinnah in the aftermath of L K Advani?s visit to Pakistan was not a party resolution but just a statement of leaders. ?I don?t know which part of the core belief that has been demolished. Patel, what is so core about him. Patel was the first leader who banned the RSS but not the Muslim League and imprisoned the RSS workers. Which core belief I have disturbed,? Singh contended.
In Shimla, earlier in the day, BJP leader Arun Jaitley had maintained that Jaswant Singh?s views on Jinnah and Patel were ?directly opposed? to the core ideology of the BJP and constituted grave indiscipline, which was why the senior leader was summarily expelled from the party. He told reporters that the BJP constitution empowered the party?s Parliamentary Board to decide on the procedure and take action in all matters of indiscipline. Jaitley also sought to make a distinction between Singh?s views on Jinnah and what was said by senior leader L K Advani in 2005 during his visit to Pakistan. ?What Advani said was a tactical reference to Jinnah?s speech in Pakistan?s constituent assembly to tell the people of Pakistan what situation they have come to. But to say that Jinnah was demonised in India, that Indian Muslims feel as aliens in the country and to denigrate Sardar Patel goes against the national consensus and party?s core beliefs,? Jaitley said.
Challenging the BJP stand, Jaswant Singh, however, maintained that he had only written about Jinnah?s transformation from a secular person to a Muslim leader, which had contributed to partition. He also pointed out that he had stood up for Advani against the treatment meted out to him after his controversial visit to Pakistan. ?I believed that Advani did not say anything that was incorrect,? he said.
Criticising the ban imposed by the Gujarat government on his book, Singh said that it amounted to ?shutting doors to thought. All of us must singly and collectively think about this step.? ?The day when our politics stop reading, writing and discussing, the politics which is now in the dark alley will be pushed into it further,? he said adding it will become ?further hollow?. Singh said when he had told Advani and Rajnath Singh that he was writing a book, they asked him to wait till the completion of Assembly and then Lok Sabha elections.
On his future political plans, Singh said he would sit in Parliament as an independent member and ruled out joining any other political party. He sidestepped questions on whether he would remain chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to which he was nominated by the BJP.