Jaswant releases book on Jinnah, no BJP leader attends launch

Apparently reflecting their discomfort, no BJP leader showed up at a function today in which Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah was released and where his view that Nehru was responsible for the Partition was contested.

Senior party leader LK Advani was in Chandigarh whereas leaders who were in Delhi were conspicuous by their absence while George Fernandes was prominent among those present.

After the book release, when reporters asked Jaswant about the absence of BJP leaders, he said "invitations were extended to all".

BJP leaders were said to be wary of Jaswant Singh's views in praise of Jinnah against the backdrop of the convulsions in the party in 2005 after LK Advani's praise of Jinnah drew criticism from within the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, including the RSS.

When asked if the RSS agreed with Singh's view that Jinnah has been "demonised" in India, RSS leader Ram Madhav said, "I have only read excerpts of the book. But I am constrained to say that it is far from the truth to state that Jinnah was not responsible for partition."

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar refused to make any direct comment on Singh's book but made it clear that the party does not agree with the contention that Jinnah was not responsible for partition and said the party stands by its June 2005 resolution on Jinnah, which holds him as one of the most important politicians responsible for the partition of India.

In the panel discussion that followed the release of the book "Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence", noted journalist MJ Akbar did not agree with Singh's apportioning blame on Nehru for the Partition.

"It was the Congress Working Committee which accepted the Cabinet (Mission) Plan...Nehru was not the dictator of Congress," he said, adding "while Gandhi wanted a secular nation with a Hindu majority, Jinnah wanted a secular nation with a Muslim majority."

Referring to causes of Partition, senior journalist Mark Tully said there were "no saints and all are, in a sense, sinners...everyone made mistakes." He said this included both Nehru and Jinnah as well as the British.

CEO of Pakistan's The Dawn newspaper Hameed Haroon said Jinnah's image remains wrongly portrayed and unexplored in that country.

He said Jinnah's pictures wearing Western dresses and smoking cigarettes were suppressed in Pakistan "...and he became a two dimensional cardboard of (General) Zia's ideals."

According to Haroon, Jinnah's speech on religious freedom was "censored by the information hierarchy of Pakistan before even the state came into being." 

Critic Namvar Singh said Singh has tried to break "what according to him is a myth that Jinnah was a villain".

He said except for Gandhi, everyone else including Nehru and Jinnah were in a "hurry" for a final decision on division of the country.

"Nehru was getting old and wanted to rule, which proves his hurry. Jinnah's death soon after the creation of Pakistan proved his hurry," he said, adding that British wanted an early decision as they were no more willing to rule India.

Noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani pointed out an error. He said after graduating as a lawyer, Jinnah did not move to the then Bombay but went back to Sindh where he was born.

"He was a great lawyer and his biggest clients were the Muslims...he did not expect to win," he added.

Renowned economist Lord Meghnand Desai said the division of the country became inevitable around April, 1947 and not before that".

He said Lord Mountbatten could be termed as the "father of Pakistan. But he was only articulating what others were saying privately."

Desai felt that Singh's book should be taken seriously as it was written by a "BJP wallah".