BJP expels Jaswant Singh

Jaswant Singh on Wednesday fell a victim for praising Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah when the BJP summarily expelled him from the party. 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. BJP President Rajnath Singh, who had on Tuesday issued a statement totally distancing the party from Jaswant Singh's book "Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence", announced the decision to the media in Shimla. "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.”
Jaswant Singh, who had held the posts of Finance, Defence and External Affairs under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was virtually declared a persona non grata when the entire BJP top brass and other leaders kept away from the function on Monday in the capital for the release of his book.