The Anglicised, saheb barrister from Gujarat, who ended up as the Qaid-e-Azam/Father of Pakistan couldn?t have imagined this. More than half a century after he died, he is giving headache to a political party in India commonly described as Hindu Nationalist. Jinnah had already claimed LK Advani?s presidentship of the BJP. Now he has felled another BJP big-shot.

Seventy-one year old Jaswant Singh is best recognised by his special shirts with epaulets, a deep-throated chortle, and trademark drawl. He is familiar with the kind of fuss that his use of English and his views have caused earlier. Just recently, it was his ?letter? to the BJP leadership insisting ?accountability? be fixed for the BJP?s dismal performance in the 2009 elections. He is famously said to have argued for ?a connect between parinaam and inam (performance and reward)?, when the new Leader of Opposition for the Rajya Sabha (Arun Jaitley) was named.

Even book writing, for this MP from Darjeeling, has signalled trouble in the past?his A Call to Honour?with its references to a US ?mole? in the Indian system led to an uproar in Parliament and he had tofinally withdraw his allegations. Other people?s books too were a source of trouble to him?former US diplomat Strobe Talbott?s, for instance, which spoke openly of his 12 meetings with Jaswant Singh (then foreign minister), who had hitherto not found it necessary to talk about them openly. But after Jaswant Singh?s latest work Jinnah, and the fact that the media saw it as ?praise for the founder of Pakistan, MA Jinnah?, things moved quickly. No party leader was there at the brainstorming in Shimla, he found himself out in the cold, unable to participate in the deliberations?the party acted before this former member of the Central India Horse could make his case.

Jaswant Singh has always been a bit of a maverick?his love for ?chess, golf and polo? are referred to as his many ?pursuits? on the back-flap of his latest book (note, not the more popular cricket). He has always been more expansive and offbeat than perhaps the membership of the BJP would allow. Though, after his expulsion, he did try to resort to metaphors more acceptable in the BJP (of having been a Hanuman, but now turned into a Ravan).

His parliamentary career began in the Rajya Sabha in 1980. He was a member of the Lok Sabha first in 1996, a minister of finance in the BJP?s 13-day government. Subsequently, he rose to be minister for external affairs when the NDA came to power in 1999, in addition to holding the charges of electronics and surface transport. He has also held the finance portfolio as well as defence. He flitted between the Upper and Lower Houses and most recently, in 2009, was the BJP?s sole MP from West Bengal.

He was born in Barmer in Rajasthan, which was also his Lok Sabha constituency, and subsequently his son Manavendra?s too for a term. He claims his family deity?s shrine is located in Baluchistan (now in Pakistan) to which he undertook a pilgrimage a couple of years ago.

The fact that he was no darling of the RSS was clear from the start as Vajpayee had to struggle to bring him into his ministry. But even later, there was an attempt to pin the Kandahar hijack swap disaster solely on him. Advani has feigned lack of knowledge, and Jaswant Singh was the minister who flew with the founder of the Jaish-e-Mohammed to Kandahar to bring back the stranded passengers. And despite the fact that he was Leader of the Opposition during the earlier UPA regime, he had to fight his way to secure a ticket to the Lok Sabha. He got a ticket after he himself saw to it that pro-Gorkhaland outfits were promising him their support. He virtually contested on his own.

Despite entering Lok Sabha and continuing as a member of the Central Parliamentary Board?the central and supposedly highest decision-making body in the BJP?the fact that he was inching his way to the margins of the party along with once-ministerial colleagues Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie was there for all to see. His open displeasure at the party leadership?he didn?t seem to distinguish between LK Advani and party president Rajnath Singh?was in effect ignored by the party. Jaswant Singh really had no backers left in the BJP, even before his praise for the Qaid-e-Azam hit the headlines.

In another now famous intervention in the recently concluded Budget session, Jaswant Singh had spoken on the Finance Bill and said that the Rs 1,030 more available to senior citizens like him ?would not even buy him a bottle of whisky?. The remark was not taken with the intended sense of humour. Plus, the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had a better joke: Jaswant Singh should now quit drinking whisky, he said, and has quite given up smoking the pipe himself.

The BJP leadership remained silent but was not amused?especially at a time when their bearings, policy platform, projection and the form their ?cultural nationalism? should take, is all under serious review.

Ever since June this year, the openly sulking and critical trinity of Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Jaswant Singh were slowly being excluded from various party fora.

Finally, the stormy discussions after Jaswant Singh?s latest tome was released (what he meant when he decided to reassess Jinnah ?favourably?, whether the party agreed with his view etc) gave the beleaguered party?s equally beleaguered current leadership and the RSS a very useful excuse to axe him.

?The author is Editor (Delhi), Indian Express