New Delhi: Firing a fresh salvo at leader of the Opposition, L K Advani, expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh has claimed that the former home minister stopped Atal Bihari Vajpayee from taking action against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi over the 2002 riots on the ground that it could trigger uproar in the party.
The prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was "disturbed" and wrote down his resignation letter in his Parliamentary office.
"Parliament was in session," Jaswant Singh said in an interview to a television channel.
"He (Vajpayee) pulled a piece of paper and he started writing his resignation by hand. I held his hand and he looked at me severely and I said what are you doing. Don't do this," Jaswant Singh said.
"He said chod do (leave me) but I somehow I persuaded him. We went to his house. We were able to defuse the situation," Singh said.
Jaswant Singh also stated that he "covered" up for Advani when he said that the former home minister was not not aware that he was going to Kandahar with three terrorists during the 1999 hijack episode.
He also said Advani was aware of the decision to release of the terrorists in exchange for freedom of over 160 hostages kept in the Indian Airlines plane that was hijacked.
MEETING WITH GEORGE FERNANDES
Jaswant Singh on Saturday met his former cabinet colleague and current Rajya Sabha MP George Fernandes.
Sources close to Jaswant Singh said he drove down to Fernandes's residence at around 0930 hrs IST.
Fernandes was the only political figure present at the book launch of Singh's controversial book on Pakistan founder M A Jinnah. No BJP leader had showed up at the function.
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