J. Akbar and B.G. Verghese from India and Hameed Haroon from Pakistan, besides renowned Hindi litterateur Naamvar Singh.

The book has also been translated in Hindi and the Urdu edition is expected to hit the stands later this month. It has been published by Rupa & Co in English and Rajpal & Sons in Hindi.

Jaswant Singh sparked off a controversy when he told Karan Thapar in 'Devil's Advocate', which was aired on CNN-IBN Sunday and Monday, that: 'Nehru believed in a highly centralized polity. That's what he wanted India to be. Jinnah wanted a federal polity. That even Gandhi accepted. Nehru didn't. Consistently, he stood in the way of a federal India until 1947 when it became a partitioned India.'

He said: 'I think we have misunderstood him (Jinnah) because we needed to create a demon... We needed a demon because in the 20th century the most telling event in the subcontinent was the partition of the country.'

His praise for Jinnah also comes ahead of the BJP's three-day 'Chintan Baithak' (brainstorming session) to begin in Shimla Aug 19.

The BJP has been maintaining that it has not changed its resolution on Jinnah, which was adopted in 2005 against the backdrop of senior leader L.K. Advani's visit to Pakistan and his comments appreciating Jinnah.

Advani's remarks had also caused an embarrassment to the BJP, that is seen to be pursuing right wing politics.