MR. JASWANT SINGH'S EXPULSION

Mr. Jaswant Singh's expulsion from the BJP for writing a book on Jinnah is surprising all secular and democratic people. One can appreciate or criticise his remarks based on facts. It is well known that Jinnah was once called as the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity. He was also a staunch Congress leader. Situations changed him and made him an All India Muslim League Chief.

It is very unfortunate that Mr. Jaswant's 30 years of dedicated service as a leader has no value for the BJP leaders who passed a resolution to expel him. One can understand where the party stands and how its leaders analyse issues!

The fact is that the strong leaders who wanted to grab power were not willing to co-operate with Mr. Jinnah and his party and pushed him to a corner to demand Pakistan. No doubt he fought for Pakistan and got it with the consent of all leaders.The loss in every respect was immeasurable. It was his great blunder. No Indian will ever pardon him for this and more so Indian Muslims whose dedicated freedom fighters including ulema had to undergo great hardships during the freedom struggle. Many of them were even hanged to death by the Britishers.

One feels that Mr. Jaswant should have criticised him more for this tragedy. Even today we are suffering because of the division of the country. We would have been stronger if the country had remained one India. The only leader who was opposed to the division of the country till the end even when all agreed to it was Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Even after partition he maintained his stand as the opponent of the partition.