Jaswant moves SC challenging Gujarat govt ban on his book

New Delhi, Aug 28 (PTI) Expelled Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh Friday moved the Supreme
Court of India challenging the Gujarat (western state)
government's ban on his book on Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Singh, along with a representative of Rupa and
Co, publisher of the book 'Jinnah -- India, Partition,
Independence', filed a petition in the apex court against the
ban imposed by the Narendra Modi government on August 19, two
days after the book's launch.

The petition said that the Gujarat government
notification banning his book had no mention of the content
which called for action and added that the ban was imposed
without anyone reading the book.

While imposing the ban, hours after Singh was expelled
from the party, the state government had alleged that it had
defamed the image of the country's first Home Minister
Vallabhbhai Patel by "questioning his patriotic spirit".

However, Singh maintained that the step amounted to
"banning thinking" and likened it to the one taken against
noted author Salman Rushdie for his controversial work
'Satanic Verses'. PTI RKS
ANU