Nehru, Patel conceded Pakistan to Jinnah: Jaswant Singh

Mohammed Ali Jinnah did not win Pakistan as Congress leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel "conceded" the breakaway country to the Quaid-e-Azam with the British acting as an ever helpful midwife, senior BJP politician Jaswant Singh has said.

In his new book, Jinnah — India, Partition, Independence, which hits the stands on Monday, August 17, Singh recalls the events leading to Partition as well as the "epic journey of Jinnah from being the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, the liberal constitutionalist and Indian nationalist, to the Quaid-e-Azam of Pakistan".

Singh raises questions on Partition. "How do you divide a geographic (also geo-political) unity? Through a 'surgical operation', Mountbatten (the last British viceroy) had said, and tragically Nehru and Patel and the Congress party had assented," he writes in the book, excerpts from which have been reproduced by India Today.

"...Jinnah did not win Pakistan, as the Congress leaders — Nehru and Patel — finally conceded Pakistan to Jinnah, with the British acting as an ever helpful midwife," Singh
says in the 669-page book.