They’d never gone public with their differences earlier. But on Friday, following his expulsion from the BJP two days ago, former leader Jaswant Singh, 71, spoke out openly and bitterly against BJP parliamentary party leader Lal Krishna Advani in a television interview.
Advani in turn
blasted Jaswant's understanding of history as revealed in his recent book
Jinnah India-Partition, Independence , specially his purported criticism of top freedom fighter and India’s first home minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Jaswant alleged that Advani had not been telling the truth when he'd claimed he was unaware of the decision to release three suspected terrorists for the safe return of the passengers aboard the Indian Airlines flight that had been hijacked to Kandahar, Afgha-nistan in December 1999.
He also maintained that it was Advani who held back former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee when the latter wanted to sack Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi after the 2002 Gujarat riots.
“Advani could not have not known about the decision,” said Jaswant. “I announced it in the cabinet. How can terrorists be released from prison with the home minister consenting?”