Chowrangi

Jinnah, Jaswant Singh and Pakistan

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The furor over a book on Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah by former senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh cost him expulsion from the party exposing the BJP and its return to hard line anti-Pakistan Hindu nationalist roots. While banning the book last month, the Gujarat government had said that Mr. Singh’s book ‘Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence’ was “objectionable, misleading and against public tranquility”. But the Gujarat high court lifted the ban saying that the government had not “read the book” before imposing the ban.

The book examines the role of Congress party leader and the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Mr. Patel in the partition of India in 1947. Mr. Singh writes that Mr. Patel was “far off the mark” in many ways with his projections about the division and future of India. The question also arises here that why senior party leader LK Advani was not similarly punished after he openly described Mr. Jinnah as “secular” after a visit to Pakistan in 2005.

Jaswant Singh is also facing furor for being closely associated with Quaid’s daughter Dina Wadia and her son Nusli Wadia. It is an allegation that Nusli Wadia financed the book to glorify his grandfather’s image. Nusli Wadia denies it strongly;

“It is all nonsense. My grandfather is my grandfather; it is not going to change. I don’t need Jaswant Singh to write a certificate for him,” he told CNN-IBN.

Jaswant Singh is prepared for the launch of his book in Pakistan too. The Indian government has allowed Jaswant Singh to visit Pakistan on September 26 to promote his book. He would arrive in Karachi on September 26, before heading to Islamabad the next day to attend a book-launch ceremony at the Islamabad Press Club.

“Sahil pay baiteh baiteh he manjdhar ke batain karthe hain … I can’t be a bystander, I’ve to be in the midstream of that emotion (re-living partition). It’s very difficult and you don’t always succeed, so I suffer that agony”


– Jaswant Singh

Whatever may be his reasons for being a member of the BJP until recently, it has to be said on his behalf that Jaswant Singh did try to build bridges with Pakistan but was tripped up by his own colleagues. In a broader perspective it doesn’t matter how Indians see Jinnah as they only portray Gandhi and Nehru as their heroes criticizing Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It is and will remain a fact that he is the founder of Pakistan and every Pakistani has a respect for him and will always respect him. The visit of Jaswant Singh to Pakistan cannot change the mind set of the nation towards the great leader but it could earn some respect for Mr. Singh for at least being rational.

Image: Jaswantsingh-mp.com

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Comments

25 responses to “Jinnah, Jaswant Singh and Pakistan”

  1. Lt. General Ayub Khan Avatar
    Lt. General Ayub Khan

    hey indian — we do have authors who wrote about ghandi and nehru.

    We appreciate nehru to some extent even though he was himself a contributor to partition. He was the only indian talking about Kashmir plebisite –while your hawks and crooks of today make myths and wet-dreams about surgical strikes into Pakistan and calling us terrorists –and insulting our government.

    We’ll get the last laugh. The furor in india over the book has us chuckling somewhat.

    indians really amaze me sometimes.

    on a seperate note, my condolenses over (yet another) indian Mig-21 which crashed to the ground due to poor maintenance. Lt Manu Akhori died in vain. RIP.

    Reply
  2. abdussamad Avatar
    abdussamad

    @hend: You seem to have misunderstood my comment. Of course I did not think he meant it literally. He has stated quite clearly that he thought the book would make Pakistani’s question the
    fundamental reason for our nation’s existence. He wanted to shake the foundations of Pakistan and cause a crisis in Pakistan. That did not happen. Instead he got a taste of his own medicine which I think is punishment by god.

    Reply
  3. Hamid Majid Abbasi Avatar
    Hamid Majid Abbasi

    @hend and confused
    well leaders,beurocrats and journalist whether in pakistan or india are not brought from some other planet,, they mostly reflect what the popular will is……….
    in Indo Pak relation the main hurdle has been the idealistic paradigm that overnight all will be forgotten on both sides and the masses will embrace each other like never before…..
    this wont happen but the best one can do with this is to tolerate each other existence and rights in a simple manner……..
    jaswant wrote sumthing….does it make a difference…….d books will put congress as moderate but it was vajpayee from BJP which i feel took a real solid stand after Bhutto’s Shimla’s episode………..

    Reply
  4. Hend Avatar
    Hend

    abdussamad

    Jaswant did not say his book would “set fire to Pakistan” he said the book would ‘Set Pakistan on fire’. Which in literary sense means cause a great deal of debate in Pakistan.

    Your view that ‘Aazab-e-ilahi has befallen the man who conspired to set Pakistan on fire’ is slightly out of context maybe if you thought he was planning to indulge in arson.

    Reply
  5. Hend Avatar
    Hend

    @indian
    i don’t know or care about leaders, bureaucrats and journalists but what matters is how the common people in both countries perceive each other. to expect improvement, first we have to improve ourselves.

    Reply
  6. Shakir Lakhani Avatar
    Shakir Lakhani

    We have always knows that Nehru and Patel were responsible for partition, just as we know that Bhutto was responsible for the break-up of Pakistan in 1971.

    Reply
  7. abdussamad Avatar
    abdussamad

    What is ironic is that singh has said he thought (maybe he wished) that the book would “set fire to Pakistan”! Instead it has set fire to India and caused the end of his political career! Aazab-e-ilahi has befallen the man who conspired to set Pakistan on fire.

    It’ll be even more ironic when he comes to Pakistan and gets a hero’s welcome! Pakistanis will line up to get his autograph while reporters will want his interview 🙂

    Reply
  8. Hamid Majid Abbasi Avatar
    Hamid Majid Abbasi

    @hend
    terrific info………..

    Reply
  9. confused indian Avatar
    confused indian

    going by the cost of book, it seems jaswant has already calculated cost of his expulsion!

    hope, this book will inspire pakistani leaders, bureaucrats and journalists to write books on gandhi, nehru or sardar patel!

    Reply
  10. Hend Avatar
    Hend

    The photograph above shows the famous comment by Gopal Krishna Gokhale praising Jinnah as “Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity”.

    For those who do not know,
    Gandhi called Gokhale his mentor and guide.
    Gokhale was also the role model and mentor of Mohammed Ali Jinnah who in 1912, aspired to become the “Muslim Gokhale”.

    The ignorant masses in both Pakistan and India, in post-partition period have grown up reading text books and history books written in a way to belittle or diminish the contribution of each others heroes. Little do we realize that all of them were “our common” heroes.

    Reply
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