Wrestling with unprecedented internal dissent, India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP is still dealing with the repercussions of its decision to expel one of its veteran leaders, Jaswant Singh, over alleged ideological transgressions related to his remarks on Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

The decision to expel the 71-year-old leader, a former Indian Army major in the Armoured Corps who has held the portfolios of finance, defence and external affairs in BJP-led governments, was taken by the party's parliamentary board.

Expulsion from the party

The decision, according to party insiders, carried the approval of opposition leader L.K. Advani who himself had raised a storm in the party with his eulogistic views on Jinnah during his visit to Pakistan four years ago.

Within hours of his expulsion, Jaswant Singh who was in Shimla but had been instructed by party chief Rajnath Singh to stay away from the BJP session met the media and said with tears in his eyes that he had committed no sin.

“I spent 30 years in this organisation", Singh recalled. "I was one of the founder members and Vajpayee, the first president of the BJP along with Advani kindly invited me to be one of the junior office bearers. In that sense the past 30 years with this organisation to be terminated suddenly through a telephone call at the end of the day is not one of the most pleasant of political experiences.”

Views over Jinnah

Lauding Jinnah as a "great man" in his book, Jaswant Singh said Jinnah was "demonised" in India, while it was actually India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel whose belief in a centralised polity had led to the partition of the subcontinent.

He also strongly contested the popular Indian view that Jinnah was the villain of the 1947 partition or the man principally responsible for it.

Jaswant Singh claimed that it had been known to the party leadership that he was writing a book on Jinnah and he had not released it earlier because it could have impacted the party in the general elections last spring.

“This book has actually in reality got finished in almost two years back. At a function to launch Lal Krishna Advaniji’s book, I was invited to be one of the speakers and I had mentioned that I was writing on Jinnah. Thereafter I mentioned it also to Advaniji and also Rajnath Singh that my book was ready and I was going to launch it.”

Book’s publicity on the rise

Meanwhile, copies of the book were flying off shelves in Delhi, where it has not been banned. Sarwar Kashani, a political science student, said he was keen to know what sparked the controversy.

“I really like to know what led to this dramatic turn of events. I know Advani too spoke of Jinnah but I want to find out if Jaswant Singh, one of the BJP’s top leaders, said something so controversial to merit expulsion.”

Singh has said he will not appeal against his expulsion from the party.

Author:Murali Krishnan (New Delhi)
Editor: Grahame Lucas