The book denigrates the Sardar,” said a spokesman of the Gujarat government on the first day, giving the reason for banning Jaswant Singh’s book, “and that is not acceptable to the state.”

No one could point to a single, not one single reference in the book that could be taken to denigrate Sardar Patel. Someone must also have realised that not being ‘acceptable’ to a state is not a ground on which a book can be banned under our Constitution and laws.

Nonetheless the ban was notified — even as the seniormost officials of the state government were testifying that they did not know the reasons for the ban. The Indian Express (August 23, 2009) reported a senior official of the state’s home department as saying, “The legal department must have gone through the book. I have not read it.” “When contacted, state law secretary M.H. Shah also expressed ignorance about the reason for the ban,” the paper reported. But a ban nonetheless — The moving finger having writ…

But, lo and behold! In the notification banning the book, there is no reference to the Sardar at all! The notification declares, “the contents of the book are highly objectionable and against the national interest... the contents of the book are misleading to the public and are against the tranquility of the public and against the interests of the state” — hence the book is to be forfeited and its publication, display, sale and distribution “and any kind of its use” are prohibited.

... contd.