Jaswant says he has not violated party discipline nor ideology

New Delhi, Aug 20 (PTI) Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) leader Jaswant Singh on Thursday questioned the party's
contention that he had violated the party's discipline and
ideology by his views on Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Sardar
Vallabhai Patel.

Returning here a day after his expulsion from the party,
he also contended 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 (by his views in his book on Jinnah). Patel,
what is so core about him. Patel was the first leader who
banned RSS but not Muslim League and imprisoned RSS workers.
which core belief I have disturbed," Singh shot back.

He was replying to a question on BJP leader Arun Jaitley
who had earlier said that Jaswant Singh was expelled for his
views in his book that went against the core beliefs of the
party and he committed grave indiscipline.

"I am not in violation of any party beliefs," he said
adding he had written about Jinnah's intractability and
constant changing of positions that contributed to partition.
"Certainly the Congress leaders were responsible as were the
British," he said.

He said he stood up for Advani against the treatment
meted out to him after his controversial visit to Pakistan. "I
believed that he (Advani) did not say anything that was
incorrect," he said.

Asked if he was expelled from the party because he did
not have strong Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) connection,
he said, "Everybody knows I am not a RSS man. I never had any
relationship with them, neither was I its member."

He said, "What the Academy and the Army gave me, it is
equal if not more than what RSS gives."

Singh criticised the ban on his book imposed by Gujarat
government 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".

He disagreed with the view that he should have retired
from politics before writing a book saying leaders like
Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad and Winston Churchill wrote a
lot when there were in politics.

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 (Lower House of
Indian Parliament) elections.

But when told that writing a book was different and
writing against the party's view was another issue, he said "I
am not able to understand what views are you talking about. No
comment on Sardar Patel was speculative but was based on
facts, printed facts."

Asked about his future political plans, Singh said he
will continue to sit in the parliament as an independent
member and ruled out joining any other political party. Asked
which side of Lok Sabha he would sit, he said, "Whichever seat
the Speaker allots me."

To a question whether he would remain Chairman of the
Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament to which he was
nominated by the BJP, he said, "time will tell you."

Singh wished the BJP "good luck" in its 'chintan baithak'
where the party was discussing the reason for the Lok Sabha
debacle.

He said he would make public on August 22, the letter
that he had recently written to the core group of the party in
the wake of Lok Sabha defeat. PTI SAP
SDE
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