Shimla, Aug 20 - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday said its parliamentary board's decision to expel senior leader Jaswant Singh was in view of the book's contents that went against the core ideology of the party and a 2005 political resolution.

'The issue is not your right to author a book, the issue is the content of the book. No political party gives you the right to write against ideology of the party or to air your views publicly,' BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley told reporters here.

He was referring to Jaswant Singh's book, 'Jinnah-India, Partition, Independence', in which he suggested that Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah had been unfairly demonised in India.

The book was also mildly critical of the role played during India's partition by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the country's first home minister. Singh was expelled for this book Wednesday, 48 hours after its release and on the day the party's three-day chintain baithak (brainstorming session) began here.

Jaitley said: 'Jinnah was the principal architect of partition and this is the party's belief. So, the content of the book is against the party's ideology. Blaming Sardar Patel for partition is also against the party's belief. He played a crucial role in uniting the country.

'Sardar Patel worked for uniting the country and blaming him is against the party's ideology. So if the party frontline leaders write after the clarification (BJP's resolution on June 10, 2005, that Jinnah was the principal architect for partition), the content of the writing is against the ideology.'

The party had adopted the resolution to this effect after BJP veteran L.K. Advani's praise for Jinnah during a visit to Pakistan in 2005 that sparked off strong opinion from the party and its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

When told that no action was taken against Advani after his laudatory remarks on Jinnah, the BJP leader said: 'Advani read what Jinnah had said in his speech in the constituent assembly to the people of Pakistan.