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BJP denies bad timing for Jaswant's expulsion
NDTV Correspondent, Wednesday August 19, 2009, New Delhi

Has the BJP shown poor timing and taste in the way that it expelled Jaswant Singh? After all, the rebel was in Shimla to attend the Chintan Baithak.

Party president Rajnath Singh claims he had requested Jaswant Singh not to attend the Shimla session. And others in the BJP insist that the matter has not been handled indelicately.

Party leader Nalin Kohli told NDTV that the BJP could not punish Jaswant Singh for his pro-Jinnah book till it was formally released. Kohli says given that the party's top rung were scheduled to meet in Shimla, this was the earliest opportunity that they had to officially sack Jaswant Singh.

But the BJP will also have to justify expelling a member for pro-Jinnah remarks, even though L K Advani made similar remarks four years ago, praising Mohammed Ali Jinnah as a secular leader. Despite the controversy that followed, within and outside his party, Advani maintained that he stood by his comments.
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Tags: advani, bjp, chintan baithak, expulsion, jaswant, rajnath
Comments
Posted by balraj on Aug 19, 2009
its quite unfair ..a great leader like Jaswanth singh shouldn't have been expelled.everyone has right to say .its unfortunate that BJP took it quite seriously.it will be big loss to BJP which is in very very difficult times.They have to rethink the abot the decision that thay have taken.even in the past LK advani had praised mohd alijinnah..what do they say about this.double standars are not good for the party.every one have their perception abot different things and jaswanth singh is not exception to that.he lauded jinnah because he feels so.people of India are not in a position to believe BJP which has lost its glory and charisma after genral elections and now even LK advaniji is not in a position to run the party.when they lose leader like Jaswantha singh what is left in the party.even the expelling is also uncalled for.he was ill treated and humiliated.this is not the way to send home some one who served the party over three decades and thay cannot sack him for just because of one reason.what all i can is it is absolutely harsh on jaswantah singh.may god knows where BJP will land in the future.
Posted by Arun Agarwal on Aug 19, 2009
I have been amused at seeing a hysterical media portraying Jaswant Singh as a victim of the BJP demon spurred into taking this action by RSS. This is absurd. Mr Jaswant Singh should know too well the point of view of the party which he claims he has been associated with for the last 30 years. If he has deemed it fit to write a book on a historical issue with a point of view diametrically opporsite to that of the BJP how can be claim the moral right to remain associated with BJP. If he had the courage or conviction in his actions, he should himself have left the party first and then release the book and finally sobbed on TV. He has emerged as another hypocrite politician who thought the BJP was naive enough to ignore this major standoff. By going to Shimla inspite of this he has just showed what a dumb politician he is. In any case his stint as minister during the brief BJP rule is hardly anything to go by and apart from an entry in the history books he has hardly anything to show for it.
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