Jaswant Challenges Modi Govt’s Ban on his Book in SC
Challenging the Gujarat government’s ban on his book, expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh has finally moved the Supreme Court.
According to media reports, Singh, along with a representative of his publisher Rupa and Co, filed a plead in the apex court against the ban imposed by the Narendra Modi government on August 19, within two days of release of the book.
In the petition, it was contended that the Gujarat government took the step even without reading the book and in the ban, there is no mention of the content which called for the action.
It may be mentioned that the Modi government had banned Jaswantss book, alleging it was an attempt to defame the image of the country’s first home minister Vallabhbhai Patel by “questioning his patriotic spirit”.
In a statement, the state government had said: “Jaswant Singh’s book questions role of Sardar Patel during the partition of India as well as his patriotic spirit. This is an attempt to tarnish the image of Patel who is considered the architect of modern united India.”
“It is a bid to defame Patel by distorting historical facts,” it charged.
Comparing the ban with the step taken against noted author Salman Rushdie for his controversial work ‘Satanic Verses’, Jaswant said that the state government’s step amounted to ‘banning thinking’.
“The day we start banning books, we are banning thinking,” said Singh, who was expelled by BJP. The controversial book lauds the founder of Pakistan and holds India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru and its first home minister Vallabhbhai Patel responsible for the country’s partition in 1947.
