Is the BJP justified in sacking Jaswant Singh from the party?

It was a shocker, at least for me. Probably because I had tuned into the Karan Thapar show few days back. I was actually quite impressed how Jaswant Singh was managing to put his views forward without passing judgements about the people involved (i.e. Jinnah, Gandhi, Nehru and the rest). Karan Thapar, true to his style, was trying to evoke strong statements from Jaswant but failed. Of what I heard on the show it seemed to be a very objective book.

There are ample reasons why I feel the sacking was unjustifiable...

Talking about Jinnah in a positive light is not a blasphemy to the Indian state or State leaders. Whether or not one agrees to Jaswant's view is a second stance. How many of the 'leaders' involved in the decision would have actually read the book? I do not think Jaswant made any negative comments about the Indian leaders (Patel & Gandhi; Obviously BJP wouldn't mind negative comments about Nehru). I am sure Mr Rajnath Singh would not have cared to read the book.

Secondly, this seemed like a 'mob-decision' from the BJP - wherein few unworthy-to-be-leaders people who just managed to have some voice, out-shouted the others.

Who is representing the BJP in this issue? - The familiar faces for whom BJP supporters vouched (Jaitley, Shourie, Sinha, Swaraj) have all been sidelined. The dignified educated leaders of BJP have been sidelined by the likes of Rajnath Singh (?? Did we even consider him a national level leader two year back!?). So, who has taken the decision on behalf of BJP???

Jaswant Singh was one of the founding members of BJP. And the party who has prided itself for its democratic procedures (Vis-a-vis the family monarchy of the Congress) choose to expel one of the its founding fathers (a greatly dignified man, an able statesmen, a respected leader, ex-external affairs minister, ex-finance minister) in such a rude manner - sans proper discussions, sans 'democratic' procedures, without even a show cause notice...

Thirdly, and most painfully, the question that comes to my mind is "Who is ousting whom??"

People who represented the BJP itself are being ousted(/sidelined/politically-assassinated/ expelled) right-left-and-centre... be it Swaraj, Jaitley, Shourie, Yashwant Sinha, Naidu... or even the Grand old man himself, Mr Advani!... so what is BJP without these people? A party of low-rung, sham leaders like Rajnath, Mishra! I mean they are as good as the BSP/ SP 'leaders'...

Though I agree that Jaswant should have resisted his urge to talk about Jinnah till he takes a political sanyas (because at such a senior level, its difficult for a party to disown his views)... but in any case the 'expulsion' is unjustifiable. At the most, he could have been warned.... He is no tom-dick-and harry, he might not be a mass-leader but he was a key BJP man. He was the most important non-RSS BJP leader. He was a senior diplomat who effectively handled strained Indo-US relations in the aftermath of the 1998 Nuclear tests. Even Strobe Talbott could not resist praising Jaswant in his book 'Engaging India' . Jaswant was even honoured with an Outstanding parliamentarian award in 2001.... All this to be expelled by some little regional champ with big voice...

Its with a deep sigh that BJP supporters like me would look at this incident - It seems one more nail in BJP's coffin.... well it just seems a matter of time till....

Or may be they will re-rise like a Phoenix...