In a surprising move that seemed to have been authored by the bigwigs of the RSS, the BJP on Wednesday expelled veteran leader Jaswant Singh for showering praise on Mohammad Ali Jinnah in his controversial book—Jinnah-India, partition, independence. The party’s parliamentary board that met at Shimla on the first day of the three-day Chintan Baithak decided to expel Singh from the primary membership of the party. Jaswant Singh was not show-caused as is done before any such extreme action is taken in any political party or organization. In fact, two days ahead, the same BJP leadership had merely suspended two Rajasthan MLAs for defying the central leadership directive. In that case both were asked to explain their conduct in seven days. Jaswant Singh touched up this point in his Press conference at Shimla and wondered why he was not even issued a show cause. BJP President Rajnath Singh, who had on Tuesday issued a statement totally distancing the party from Jaswant Singh's book announced the decision to the media here. "I had issued a statement yesterday that the party fully dissociates itself from the contents of the book. Today I put up the matter before the Parliamentary Board which decided to end his primary membership. "So he has been expelled. From now onwards he will not be a member of any body of the party or be an office bearer," he said on the expulsion of the 71-year-old party veteran. Rajnath Singh said had told Jaswant Singh not to come to Shimla for participating in the 'chintan baithak'. Jaswant Singh has been having an uneasy relationship with the party leadership ever since the Lok Sabha elections on which he had circulated a note demanding thorough discussion on the debacle. Jaswant Singh, who had held the posts of Finance, Defence and External Affairs under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was virtually declared a persona non grata when the entire BJP top brass and other leaders kept away from the function on Monday in the capital for the release of his book. Singh, who had served with the Territorial Army, was elected to Lok Sabha from Darjeeling in West Bengal with the support of Gorkhaland outfit. That things were not well with Jaswant Singh was clear this morning when he did not stir out of his hotel even after the brainstorming session began in Peterhof, the venue of the session. His aides kept saying that he was not well and was resting. Rajnath Singh took a break from the brainstorming session to come and brief the media on the expulsion decision. The party was averse to Jinnah and even L K Advani had to backtrack on his comments about the founder of Pakistan after a visit to that country in 2005. He was made to step down as BJP President and the party adopted a resolution condemning Jinnah's role in the Partition. In the aftermath of the Lok Sabha debacle, Jaswant Singh had criticized Advani's appointment of Parliamentary office bearers and called for a link between "performance and rewards". He was then considered to be a dissident along with leaders like Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie. However, the party sought to delink him from the other dissidents by nominating him the Chairman of the prestigious Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. source : pioneer
The Jinnah was an evil and was responsible 100% for the partition and loss of over a million lives. As soon as he got Pakistan, in two months time Jinnah's men attack Kashmir. Praising Jinnah for any Indian is the greatest betrayal of the country.
Jaswant Singh deserves to be expelled from BJP.He should join Muslim League or Congress Party where he will have great support and a bright future.
