RSS irked by Jaswant's mention of India being a country of many nationalities

New Delhi, Aug.21 (ANI): It is learnt that the Sangh leadership has revisited Jaswant Singh's controversial book -- Jinnah - India, Partition, Independenc-and has raised severe objections to many of its contents other than the eulogizing of Jinnah and the denigration of India's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel.

"The RSS is badly irked by mention of India being a country of many nationalities," sources said.

The RSS believes that such talk is in itself contradictory to the BJP's famous slogan of "One Country, One Constitution", which the party has often used in the context of removing the special status allocated to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The RSS also believes that Jaswant's argument of India being a country of many nationalities is similar to the ideology of the Left parties.

The RSS has also trashed Singh's contention that Sardar Patel banned the Sangh, and therefore, he had done no harm to the core ideology of the BJP by writing against the iron man.

RSS sources told ANI that the RSS has deep respect for Patel despite the fact that he banned the outfit.

They further elaborated that Patel had banned the RSS on the orders of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru after Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by Nathu Ram Godse.

Prior to implementing the order, Patel had written a letter to Nehru appreciating the social service rendered by the RSS when the partition of the subcontinet was at its peak. Patel also wrote to Veer Savarkar about the good work done by the Swayamsevaks.

In fact, Patel gave a clean chit to RSS within a month of Gandhi's assassination, and is said to have told Nehru that the RSS was not involved in the killing.

The RSS was banned on February 4, 1948 four days after the killing of Mahatma Gandhi. The ban was only lifted in July 1949. The right wing outfit was later banned during the emergency (1975) and after the demolition of the Babri Mosque (December 1992).

Earlier in the day, Advani also toed the RSS line in saying that Patel had banned the RSS under pressure from Nehru.

Advani also said that Patel's task of unifying more 700 odd princely states was a "super human effort and a spectacular achievement." By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)