Hyderabad: Former Union Minister Mr. Jaswant Singh vowed never to return to Bharatiya Janata Party as his expulsion from the party was an attack on his ‘izzat’. Addressing a meet-the-press program organized by the Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) here on Saturday said that he had no plans to join any other political party or float his own.  He said all political parties in the country barring communists had metaphorised into family limited companies and he would not be able to fit into them. He was in the Hyderabad to participate in a function to promote his book on Jinnah.

Coming down heavily on the foreign policy of the UPA government, Mr. Jaswant Singh, who was External Affairs Minister during the NDA rule,  said it failed to protect the interests of the country in the immediate neighborhood. In last seventeen months, there were two attacks on our embassy in Kabul and Government was not able to do anything. “I offered to go to Afghanistan and mediate on the country’s behalf. But the Government did not respond,” he said.  Responding to a question, he said he did not have any remorse on his trip to Kandahar during airline hostage crisis and said he was proud of it and would repeat if need arose. “My priority was saving the lives of the hostages. Nothing is more important than saving lives,” he said.

Terming the policy of the Man Mohan Singh Government towards Naxalites as ‘lethargic and half hearted’, Mr. Jaswant Singh said it was not a law and order problem and should be tackled with multi-pronged approach. Expressing his concern over the Naxalite violence, he said about 200 districts accounting for about one third of the country were affected by the Naxalite menace.   

Stating that he was always opposed the communal politics, Mr. Jaswant Singh said he was lone member of the BJP National Executive who opposed the Rath Yatra of Mr. L K Advani. “I expressed my concern over the happenings in Gujarat and told the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to remove Narendra Modi as Chief Minister of Gujarat immediately,” he said. Referring to his book on Jinnah, he said had Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhai Patel listened to the advice of Mahatma Gandhi and made Jinnah Prime Minister then, the partition and the untold misery of the Hindus and Muslims in the sub-continent could have been averted.

Felicitating US President Barrack Obama on getting Nobel Peace Prize, he said it was awarded to him for future tasks. He refused to comment on the merits of the decision of the Nobel Committee and said he would not like to be judgmental.  He expressed his condolences over the death of several people in the recent floods in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and parts of Maharashtra and demanded that the Central Government should come forward to assist these state governments in relief and rehabilitation of those affected by the unprecedented floods.  The Government should undertake works to prevent such calamities in the future, he said.

Responding to a question, Mr. Jaswant Singh said there was no need for him to resign as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament after his expulsion from the BJP as the appointment of the Chairman of the PAC was the prerogative of the Speaker of Lok Sabha. He said the BJP approached the Speaker to remove him and she did not oblige them.

President of APUWJ, Mr. D Somasundar presided over the program. Mr. Y Narender Reddy, General Secretary of the Union welcomed the gathering and introduced Mr. Jaswant Sing. Mr. K Amarnath, Secretary, Indian Journalists Union acted as Moderator.