Thaindian News

Shimla, Aug 21 (IBNS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the concluding day of its brainstorming session (chintan baithak) here has defended its action of expelling senior leader Jaswant Singh since the latter had not only praised Jinnah but also defamed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Terming the expulsion of Singh as painful but necessary, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj told reporters that party leader L K Advani was of the view that Singh’s expulsion had become necessary since he had not only praised Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in his new book but also disparaged Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first home minister.

“It is mentally painful to expel somebody who has been with you for the past 30 years but what he wrote was against the basic ideology of the party,” Advani said in his valedictory speech of the three-day ‘Chintan Baitak’ here.

Advani said Patel had to ban RSS as home minister at the behest of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

“One month later, Patel wrote a letter to Nehru saying that there is not an iota of evidence against RSS. Jaswant is saying only half of what had happened and not the other half,” Advani was quoted as saying by Sushma Swaraj.

Advani also said that Patel’s task of unifying more 700 odd princely states was a “super human effort and a spectacular achievement.”

“It was not possible by an ordinary person. Jaswant Singh tried to denigrate Patel,” Advani said, quoted Swaraj.

Meanwhile, BJP president Rajnath Singh today said L K Advani would continue as the party’s leader, and would do so for the next “50 to 100 years.”

When Rajnath Singh was asked if Advani continue as leader of the Opposition for the next five years, he said he would and then went on to say that Advani would remain leader for another 100 years.

“Why five years, why not 50 or 100 years?” he asked.

He said the party would chart a roadmap for change in September or October.

He said the party’s top priority at the moment is to reign in dissidence.