It was Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi who set the ball rolling for veteran leader Jaswant Singh’s abrupt expulsion from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the party’s chintan baithak in Shimla on Wednesday. According to information coming in from Shimla, Modi pitched strongly for disciplinary action against Jaswant for committing the unpardonable sin of holding Gujarat’s biggest icon, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, responsible for the Partition while absolving Jinnah, ironically, also a Gujarati.
With the party already on edge after being slammed by the RSS for indiscipline and factionalism, Modi’s arguments proved irresistible and persuasive. When the parliamentary board met on Wednesday morning and Rajnath Singh asked what should be done, Vinay Katiyar demanded, without batting an eyelid, that Jaswant be expelled from the party immediately. It may be recalled that Katiyar had led the charge against LK Advani four years ago when he was caught in a similar row for praising Jinnah.
Modi seconded the proposal quickly, followed by Murli Manohar Joshi and several others. Advani, who was silent till then, gave his assent and the decision to expel Jaswant was approved unanimously.
Later, on Thursday, while defending the decision, Arun Jaitley was asked whether Jaswant was punished for his comments on Jinnah or on Patel. Jaitley’s reply was, “It is a cumulative effect of both. Sardar Patel’s contribution to the unification of India can be undermined by none.”
For Modi, who styles himself as the chief flagbearer of Gujarati “asmitha” (pride), it was the criticism of Patel that was difficult to stomach. He made his move almost as soon as he landed in Shimla on Tuesday evening. He first lobbed the ball at younger leaders like Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananthkumar.
The next morning, he continued his lobbying over breakfast where everyone was present, including Advani and Rajnath Singh. Not surprisingly, Katiyar threw his weight behind Modi and, at times, was even more vocal and emphatic.
Modi insisted that by criticising Patel and praising Jinnah in his book, Jaswant had made his and the BJP’s position untenable in Gujarat. He said that the Congress would make political capital out of this and the BJP would feel its repercussions not only in Gujarat but all over the country.
Both he and Katiyar demanded that a meeting of the parliamentary board be called before the baithak began to decide on the disciplinary action against Jaswant. Even as they went in for the meeting, many felt that action would be limited to stripping Jaswant of his membership of the parliamentary board but with Katiyar upping the ante to propose expulsion from the party, matters spun out of control.
Jaitley justified the summary expulsion on Thursday, saying that the parliamentary board is fully empowered by the party constitution to take whatever action it deems fit. “(It) has powers in all matters of indiscipline and to decide the procedure and the action in such cases,” he maintained.
He said what Jaswant Singh wrote in his book on Jinnah and Patel were “directly opposed” to the party’s core ideology and constituted grave indiscipline.
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