SC asks Gujarat why Jaswant’s book was banned

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Narendra Modi government on a petition filed by expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh challenging the order banning his controversial book on Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Gujarat.

SC asks Gujarat why Jaswant's book was banned

A bench comprising Justice Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph asked the state government's counsel to seek instruction on the issue and posted the matter for further hearing to September 8.

Senior Advocates Fali S Nariman and Soli Sorabjee, appearing for the veteran politician, contended that banning of the book was violative of fundamental rights of its author and publisher.

Gujarat government had banned the book on Pakistan's founder on August 19, two days after its launch, on the charge that its contents were against public tranquility and national interest.

The 71-year-old politician challenged the state government's notification alleging that the authority banned the book Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence arbitrarily and without going through its contents. It amounts to violation of his fundamental rights of speech and expression, Singh said.

"Fundamental right of freedom of speech has been sought to be taken away by the Gujarat government by banning the book through a hasty and arbitrary notification," Singh, who has written 10 books, said in his petition.

Terming the ban as illegal, the eight-time MP submitted that the book was based on historical facts and five years of extensive research and that it could not be proscribed on the state government's specious plea.

Singh said the step against his book amounted to banning thinking and likened it to the one taken against noted author Salman Rushdie for his controversial work Satanic Verses.

"A bare perusal of the notification showed the ban was put on the book by the state government without caring to go through its contents. The notification does not refer to any passage or excerpts in the book which, according to the government, is objectionable or against the interest of the state," Singh said.

Will not quit parliamentary panel: Jaswant Singh

A combative Jaswant Singh on Tuesday said he would not quit as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, a day after the expelled BJP leader was told by his former party to quit the parliamentary post.

Asked by reporters if he would oblige the BJP by quitting the PAC, Jaswant Singh said he would not.

"The decision (to ask him to quit the PAC) is of the (Lok Sabha) speaker, and not of a political party," he said.

The PAC scrutinises government spending. The Darjeeling MP had been reportedly asked by the BJP on Monday to quit the post since he had been expelled from the party.

He also said he would not rejoin the BJP or any other party like the Samajwadi Party, which has been sending him feelers ever since his ouster from the BJP last month.

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