NEW DELHI: Former Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, who was expelled from the principal Opposition party in Parliament, the BJP, is now all set to travel to Pakistan to promote his book, “Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence”, which became the basis for his expulsion.
Singh is expected to travel initially to Islamabad and later to Karachi for the Jinnah book promotion. Singh has struck a chord by articulating the position of Pakistan-founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
The publisher of the book, Rupa & Co., heartened by the response from Pakistan for the English version, will shortly release an Urdu version. According to the publisher, an initial consignment of 500 books was sent to Pakistan and it was followed up with a demand for 1,000 more copies.
Surprisingly, although the BJP expelled Singh for his book, the BJP spiritual mentor and the RSS former Chief K S Sudarshan created a flutter by declaring that Jinnah was a nationalist to the core. He also said that it was Mahatma Gandhi and his policies that drove Jinnah not only out of the Congress in 1927 but out of India and Jinnah had moved to England. The RSS Chief also declared that Gandhi was responsible for the partition.
Ironically, this was the same line promoted by Singh in his book on Jinnah and yet he was faced with expulsion from the BJP.
