Guj Cong to campaign against Jaswant`s book

The Congress party in Gujarat plans a campaign against expelled Jaswant Singh.

Gandhinagar: The Congress party in Gujarat Friday said it plans a campaign against expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh and his views on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel`s alleged role in India`s partition in his controversial book "Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence". The Gujarat Congress plans a series of awareness campaigns against the former external affairs minister for what it called doubting the patriotism of Patel, a great freedom movement leader, a Gujarat Congress statement said here Friday.

The campaign comes at a time when Gujarat is set to hold by-polls to seven assembly seats Sep 10. The campaigns would see Congress leaders travelling to various places in the coming week to start an awareness campaign on the "objectionable comments" made by Singh in his book on Mohammed Ali Jinnah. The prime objective of the campaign would be to expose the mindset of a former BJP leader, who was also a minister, the statement said. State and district level party leaders would organise sit-ins across towns and cities against Singh for making comments against Patel, who played a key role in the freedom movement in Gujarat and across the country. Singh in his book has said that Jinnah was "demonised" in India, while part of the blame for the country`s partition should also go to the country`s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. "Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence" has already been banned in Gujarat. IANS