BJP’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj has indicated that party leader Jaswant Singh’s views on Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah expressed in his book released here on Monday would “certainly” be the subject of a detailed discussion at the party’s three-day brainstorming session in Shimla due to begin on Wednesday.
“Denigrating Sardar Patel [India’s first Home Minister] and eulogising Jinnah were views that were totally against the party’s basic ideology and belief,” she said while suggesting that on this there could be and would be no compromise. While a formal and more detailed reaction from the party is expected on Tuesday, party leaders did say that such a book from Mr. Singh was not needed at all and would send a “very wrong message” to the party cadre for the party believes that Patel helped consolidate India by bringing the erstwhile princely States around to recognising the new Indian state and it was “totally unacceptable” for a senior leader to view Patel as the man responsible for Partition.