To Jinnah with love, from Jaswant

I can understand the fascination of senior BJP leaders ( first Advani now Jaswant Singh) for Jinnah, as its impossible to believe that a cognac drinking and pork eating Muslim can become the demon that divided the country in the name of religion.

It can be impossible to accept the fact that India is divided by a man who opposed the Congress’s Khilafat agitation as he believed that it was endorsing Islamic religious bigotry. How come a modern, English speaking can be the sole reason for Pakistan existence whose Urdu was so bad that as one saying goes that when he once declared "Pakistan Zindabad!" he said it in such an anglicized way that most people thought he was saying "Pakistan's in the bag!"

How come he allowed his daughter and her daughter’s son to stay back in India, in spite of all the hatred and communal violence? There are many instances of Mahomedali Jinnahbhai life that makes him a westernized liberal Muslim, which must have fascinated Mr. Jaswant Singh to explore Jinnah’s true contribution to the great Indian partition.

It is not a new perspective of the events that led to the division of India, earlier also many noted academicians and writers (including Maulana Azad) have written about it in the similar line of what Jaswant Singh had.

What amazed me the time that Mr. Jaswant Singh deliberately chose to publish his research; at a time when BJP is going with its identity crisis, was hitting on the core BJP ideology is Jaswant’s way from becoming a senior marginalized party member to a revolutionist? Definitely, Mr. Jaswant Singh was aware of the consequence, otherwise he would not have reacted lightly. Was he thinking that an intellectual view cannot be seen as a blow to BJP ideology, as Mr. Advani, BJP's top shot have already been condoned of praising Jinnah as a secular leader in 2005.

It’s also sad to see that Jaswant Singh expulsion was finally signed and approved by Mr. Advani who himself once praised Jinnah as a secular leader. What is now making BJP warlike against one of its founder member who had served many cabinet minister ranks during the NDA days? Was it easy to kick out him as he made a view against the ideology base at which BJP sits as here is no one to support him in the BJP, after all he is a rootless politician, who had to move from the deserts of Rajasthan to the distant hills of Darjeeling for Lok Sabha rehabilitation.

I have not read Mr. Jaswant Singh's new book but who read and dissected it says that Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah is a little over 650 pages. None of the 20 odd members who comprise the BJP's think tank at the party's chintan baithak have read the book cover to cover. Had they read the fine print, they might have realized that the book is more a critique of the role of the Congress leadership during partition, doesn't eulogies Jinnah, nor does it castigate the BJP's new poster boy Sardar Patel.

One thing is for sure after telephonic expulsion of Jaswant Singh from BJP is that the party is going through an identity crisis and is desperate to establish its hardcore hindutva ideology, for which there seems to be no takers.

I am not here to support Jinnah or BJP, because as a young, educated and ambitious modern Indian I cannot be bring to boil on Hindutva as the Karsewaks and Sants of early nineties. I am sure most of the India’s youth is now focused on his career, dreams and life rather than BJP ideology of Hindutva. Whether Jinnah did it or not, it’s a history and let it be part of discussion of academicians and historians.