Courting controversies

amp;149;2006: He may have been expelled from the BJP over his book Jinnah India,Partition,Independence,but this is not the first time Jaswant Singh has found himself authoring a controversy. In 2006,there was an uproar when in A Call to Honour: In Service to Emergent India,he alleged that a mole in the Prime Ministers Office during P V Narasimha Raos tenure leaked nuclear secrets to American sources. In August,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dared him to identify this mole and after some hedging,Jaswant admitted that his claims were based on a strong hunch and that he had no name to offer.

amp;149;2007: After allegations surfaced that Jaswant Singh served opium-laced beverages to guests at a function in his ancestral village of Jasol in Rajasthan,a complaint was filed against him and nine other party leaders at a special court in Jodhpur. Seven months later,the Rajasthan Police filed a report in court saying that the allegations could not be substantiated.

amp;149;2008: The former external affairs minister came under fire when he defended the controversial decision to free terrorists during the 1999 Kandahar hijack. His statement I will do the same thing if such a situation arises in future had the Congress accusing him of giving in to blackmail from terrorists.

amp;149;March 2009: Jaswant was allegedly caught on tape distributing money to voters at a village in Barmer,from where his son Manvendra Singh was contesting the Lok Sabha polls.

amp;149;June 2009: Jaswant Singh rankled the BJPs leadership in his open criticism of the partys performance in the Lok Sabha elections. In a letter circulated in the BJPs core group meeting,he pointed out that party leaders were becoming too self-centred to serve the public. Swa is to be found both in swayam self and swarth self-interest, read his letter,which also noted the de-linking of rewards with performance puraskar aur parinam in the party set-up.