I supported LK Advani for Jinnah remark and "covered up" for him during the 2009 Lok Sabha campaign by concealing that the party's prime ministerial candidate knew of the terrorist-hostage swap during the 1999 plane hijacking, says expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh.

"I covered up for Advani...Advani always knew that I was accompanying the terrorists to Kandahar," Jaswant Singh, former external affairs minister, said in an interview to NDTV.

Jaswant Singh also said Advani, who was home minister then, was present at the meeting where it was decided that he would accompany the terrorists who were handed over in exchange for the freedom of the passengers on the hijacked IC 814 plane in 1999.

Asked why he had stated otherwise during the election campaign of 2009, the former external affairs minister said he was "conservative with the truth" because he thought it his duty to protect Advani.

He conceded that the shadow of the 2002 Gujarat riots continued to tarnish the BJP's image.

And he also claimed that then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was set to take action against state Chief Minister Narendra Modi for it, but was stopped by Advani who said "bahut bawal khada ho jayega (It will create a big problem)".

Targeting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP's ideological forbear, Jaswant Singh said the organisation needed to decide once and for all if it was in politics or not.