Congress accuses BJP of double standards with regard to Advani, Jaswant

New Delhi, Aug.21 (ANI): The Congress party on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of double standards towards its own leaders, and of adopting different yardsticks for Leader of Opposition L K Advani and expelled party leader Jaswant Singh for their comments on Pakistan founder M A Jinnah.

"It is clear that they have double standards for L K Advani, Jaswant Singh and for Arun Shourie," party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters at New Delhi on Friday.

Natarajan categorically rejected Jaswant's views on Jinnah and Sardar Patel as expressed in his controversial book.

"We categorically reject whatever has been written by Jaswant Singh. We know BJP leaders have a history of making wrong statements," Natarajan said.

The Congress leader also said that the book has been banned as a result of "factionalism and groupism" within BJP, rather than due to its content.

She cited the case of Karnataka, which has not banned the book unlike Gujarat.

To a query about the party's stand on freedom of expression, Natarajan said, "we absolutely respect freedom of expression... Congress stands for freedom of expression."

"We don't support Jaswant Singh's views on Jinnah or what Advani had said on Pakistan's founder. We also don't support Arun Shourie's views on Babasaheb Ambedkar (which he had expressed in his book on Ambedkar a decade back)."

Natarajan also claimed that the view taken by Jaswant on Sardar Patel "is a distortion of history".

She also clarified that its Gujarat unit chief did not make any statement welcoming the ban on the book there. (ANI)