Sometimes, one’s own words turn out to be prophetic. “This is the first time (in years) when I am not anything,” Jaswant Singh often told his colleagues soon after he realised that he may have been elected to the Lok Sabha, but he would be just another MP and not the Leader of Opposition in either House.

His summary expulsion by the BJP today leaves Jaswant, 71, bereft of any high office or trappings of importance. But one could see it coming. Having been the Union minister for foreign affairs, defence and finance, as well as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, it was unlikely that Jaswant would happily settle for anything less.

What also may have rankled him was the continuation of Vasundhara Raje at the helm of the Rajasthan BJP. Both shared a bitter relationship, which was ironic as Jaswant owed his break in politics — a Rajya Sabha berth in 1980 — to Vasundhara Raje’s mother Vijaya Raje Scindia.

Jaswant had been itching for a fight to engage the party. But for all his martial spirit, the BJP did not afford him this opportunity — the party has not even bothered to preface his expulsion with the mandatory showcause notice. In the prevalent atmosphere in the party, when everybody felt free to question anything and anybody, Jaswant seemed to be asking for trouble by questioning the basic tenets of the Sangh Parivar. As insiders saw it, he committed two cardinal sins: after questioning the basic premise of Hindutva, he absolved M A Jinnah of any blame for Partition. As a clincher, he clubbed Sardar Patel with Jawaharlal Nehru while pinpointing those responsible for the creation of Pakistan.

... contd.