'Advani was not against Jaswant’s expulsion'

BJP denied reports that its senior leader L K Advani was not in favour of Jaswant Singh’s removal from the party for authoring a controversial book on Pakistan-founder M A Jinnah, saying all decisions of the Parliamentary Board are “unanimous”.

BJP on Saturday denied reports that its senior leader L K Advani was not in favour of Jaswant Singh’s removal from the party for authoring a controversial book on Pakistan-founder M A Jinnah, saying all decisions of the Parliamentary Board are “unanimous”.

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“All BJP Parliamentary Board decisions are unanimous,” party general secretary Ananth Kumar told reporters in reply to a question on whether Advani had disagreed with the decision to remove Singh during the Chintan Baithak in Shimla on August 19.

When asked specifically whether the decision of the Parliamentary Board on the issue was unanimous, Kumar said, “everybody (agreed).”

A leading English newspaper had reported that Advani did not support the Parliamentary Board decision to expel the Darjeeling MP.

He was only in favour of Singh’s expulsion from the Parliamentary Board or national executive, according to the report, which also stated that Advani found himself “a lone voice”.

The report named Kumar as one of the most vocal voices which demanded Singh’s expulsion at the meeting, held two days after the book’s release.

Singh had drawn the ire of his party by authoring Jinnah - India, partition, Independence in which he held Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel responsible for the partition while taking a soft line on Jinnah’s role.