Jammu, Aug 21 - Mohan Bhagwat, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief, Friday said his organisation had no role in the expulsion of veteran politician Jaswant Singh from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

'RSS has no role in it whatsoever,' Bhagwat told mediapersons here on the first day of his three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir. 'It's purely BJP's internal affair,' he said.

Many political analysts cite Jaswant Singh's lack of closeness to the RSS as one of the reasons for his expulsion from the BJP Wednesday. The RSS is the ideological parent of the BJP, the country's main opposition party.

Bhagwat criticized Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Sharm-el-Sheikh joint statement with Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, especially with reference to Balochistan.

'Strategically, India has gone on the backfoot,' Bhagwat said, echoing the apprehensions that the BJP leadership had voiced in parliament. The BJP feels India has capitulated to Pakistan by allowing Balochistan to be mentioned in the joint statement. Islamabad accuses India of fomenting insurgency in the Pakistani province of Balochistan.

With regard to the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which some political parties and separatists say should be revoked in Jammu and Kashmir, Bhagwat said: 'Special powers should stay with the security forces as long as those are required.