31 Aug : Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj on Monday met expelled party veteran Jaswant Singh and is understood to have demanded that he step down from the post of chairperson of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.
Jaswant, being the senior-most of the three BJP MPs nominated to the PAC from the party, was appointed the chairperson of the committee.
The other two BJP members are Yaswant Sinha and Gopinath Munde.Party sources said Swaraj, who was accompanied by S S Ahluwalia, discussed the issue of PAC chairmanship at the meeting, the first between any top-rung BJP leader and Jaswant after his expulsion.
Jaswant, who was expelled from the party on 19th August during the BJP Chintan Baithak in Shimla for his remarks in his book ‘Jinnah – India, Partition, Independence’, has already ruled out resignation from the post
As per convention, the chairpersonship of the PAC was given to BJP as it is the main opposition party.
However, under parliamentary rules, the PAC chairperson can continue till he himself resigns or is found unable or unfit to discharge his duties effectively by the Lok Sabha Speaker.Speaker Meira Kumar has indicated that Jaswant cannot be removed from the post simply because he has been expelled from the BJP.