Senior Leader Jaswant Singh Dismissed From BJP
Posted on Aug 21, 2009 under News, Politics, World News | No CommentThe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday expelled senior leader Jaswant Singh from the primary membership of the party two days after the release of his book praising Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
The decision to expel Singh, a Lok Sabha member and a former Union Minister, was taken at the Parliamentary Board of the party which met in Shimla during the opening session of the three-day brainstorming session of the top leaders here.
President Rajnath Singh, who had yesterday issued a statement totally distancing the party from Jaswant Singh’s book “Jinnah – India, Partition, Independence”, announced the decision to the media here.
“I had issued a statement yesterday that the party fully dissociates itself from the contents of the book. Today, I put up the matter before the Parliamentary Board which decided to end his primary membership. So he has been expelled. From now onwards he will not be a member of any body of the party or be an office bearer,” he said on the expulsion of the 71-year-old party veteran.
Rajnath Singh said yesterday he had told Jaswant Singh not to come to Shimla for participating in the ‘chintan baithak’. Jaswant Singh has been having an uneasy relationship with the party leadership ever since the Lok Sabha elections on which he had circulated a note demanding thorough discussion on the debacle.
