Jaswant says he didn't know BJP was nervous about Jinnah

Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh Sunday said he never knew the party was so "narrow minded" to unceremoniously sack him for writing a book.

Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh Sunday said he never knew the party was so "narrow minded" to unceremoniously sack him for writing a book.

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He said the contention in his controversial book, "Jinnah -- India, Partition, Independence", that the founder of Pakistan was a "great man" and had been "demonised" in India was based on facts, and wondered that it should upset his party leadership.

"I didn't think the party is so narrow-minded...so nervous about Jinnah and Patel and to get so riled at what I have written. I have a feeling, which I voiced also, that perhaps my former colleagues had not really read the book when they passed the sentence," he told Karan Thapar on 'Devil's Advocate' programme on CNN-IBN television channel.

Singh, who has handled external affairs, defence and finance portfolios in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, was unhappy that the party did not distinguish between Jinnah's personal attributes as a human being and his politics while taking a decision to expel him.