By IANS,
New Delhi : Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh Sunday said he never knew the party was so “narrow minded” to unceremoniously sack him for writing a book.
He said the contention in his controversial book, “Jinnah — India, Partition, Independence”, that the founder of Pakistan was a “great man” and had been “demonised” in India was based on facts, and wondered that it should upset his party leadership.
“I didn’t think the party is so narrow-minded…so nervous about Jinnah and Patel and to get so riled at what I have written. I have a feeling, which I voiced also, that perhaps my former colleagues had not really read the book when they passed the sentence,” he told Karan Thapar on ‘Devil’s Advocate’ programme on CNN-IBN television channel.
Singh, who has handled external affairs, defence and finance portfolios in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, was unhappy that the party did not distinguish between Jinnah’s personal attributes as a human being and his politics while taking a decision to expel him.