Gandhinagar, Aug 19 - The Gujarat government late Wednesday decided to ban expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh's controversial book on partition for his criticism of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

'Making any references to his (Patel's) role during those critical times without any evidence is an insult to the people of Gujarat, which we will not take lying down,' state government spokesman and Health Minister Jay Narayan Vyas told the NDTV news channel.

Singh was expelled from the party earlier in the day for his book, 'Jinnah: India - Partition - Independence', released Monday.

Singh has said Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah was 'demonised' in India, while it was actually India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and first home minister Vallabhbhai Patel whose belief in a centralised polity had led to the partition of the subcontinent.