INDIA'S Hindu nationalist movement has been thrown into disarray by the publication of a book about a Muslim leader who died more than 60 years ago.
Jaswant Singh is bone of 3 January 1938. He is an Indian politician and member of parliament from Darjeeling parliamentary constituency. He is from the Indian State of Rajasthan and was an officer in the Indian Army in the 1960s and is an alumnus of Mayo College and the National Defence Academy (India), Khadakwasla. He served as Finance minister in the short-lived government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee goverment. He is one of the few Indian politicians to have been the Minister for Defence, Finance and External Affairs .He started the new government of Vajpayee, which lasted its full term, as the External Affairs Minister and later on switched his ministry to Finance with Yashwant Sinha. He was also the Defence Minister when George Fernandes was forced to resign after the Tehelka exposure.Jaswant Singh, a senior leader in the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition party, has been expelled after writing a book praising Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of the country's rival neighbour Pakistan. Mr Jinnah as a great man who has been misunderstood in India. The partition that separated Pakistan from India in 1947 remains a controversial issue in the region. Mr Singh's glowing assessment of Mr Jinnah, who is blamed by many Indians for unnecessarily dividing the subcontinent into nations based on religion, was unacceptable to many BJP leaders. A party spokesman said Mr Singh had been expelled because his book went against its all Indian party.BJP members were also angered by the book's criticism of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first home minister and a leading figure in the struggle to win independence from colonial rule. Mr Patel is widely regarded as a national hero.Jaswant Singh, 71, was one of the BJP's top parliamentary performers, having served as foreign minister and finance minister in the former BJP government, which held power from 1998 to 2004. He joins several other high-profile former BJP leaders who have been kicked out on disciplinary grounds. The BJP has been dogged by infighting since its surprisingly bad showing at the polls. Mr Singh's expulsion also comes amid lingering leadership tension. The party's boss, L.K. Advani, 81, is not expected to lead the party to the next election, but a new leadership candidate with support across the party is yet to emerge. It is not the first time that praising Jinnah has landed a BJP leader in trouble but it is first time highlighted in India. The political career of its leader, Mr Advani, was almost destroyed when he made favourable comments about Pakistan's first national leader in 2005.
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