Shimla, August 20: Criticising a ban imposed on his book by Gujarat government, expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh today said it amounted to “banning thinking” and likened the step to the one taken against noted author Salman Rushdie for his controversial work ‘Satanic Verses’.
“I am greatly saddened by it,” Singh told reporters on the Gujarat government’s decision to ban his book “Jinnah–India, Partition, Independence”.
“The day we start banning books, we are banning thinking,” said Singh, who was expelled by BJP for the book in which he has praised the Pakistan founder M A Jinnah.
He said the step taken by Gujarat government was “another example of (action taken against) Salman Rushdie and Satanic Verses” which was banned for its controversial contents on Islam.
–PTI