The Hindu : Front Page : Jinnah created history: Advani

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Sunday, Jun 05, 2005

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Jinnah created history: Advani

Beena Sarwar

`A great man who had espoused the cause of secular Pakistan'

KARACHI: "There are many people who leave an inerasable stamp on history. But there are a few who actually create history. Qaed-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was one such rare individual," wrote Opposition leader and Bharatiya Janata Party president Lal Krishna Advani in the visitors' book at the Jinnah mausoleum.

These words, and indeed his very visit to the Qaed's Mazar, appear attempts to dissociate himself from the Sangh Parivar's pet "Akhand Bharat" [indivisible India] slogan, as he already did in Lahore recently by acknowledging the emergence of India and Pakistan as an "unalterable reality of history."

(A PTI report said Mr. Advani described Jinnah as ``a great man'' who had espoused the cause of secular Pakistan in an address to his country's Constitutent Assembly. Jinnah's August 11, 1947 address was really ``a classic, a forceful espousal of a secular state in which while every citizen would be free to pursue his own religion, the state should make no distinction between one citizen and another on grounds of faith. My respectful homage to this great man.'')

Mr. Advani and his family arrived in his birthplace Karachi late on Friday, on the last leg of their visit to Pakistan. His first stop on Saturday morning was not his old school or the house he grew up in, but the Mazar that he and his family visited amid tight security.

He laid a wreath at the mausoleum to the sounding of bugles by the Mazar's naval guard and stood in silence as a cleric offered prayers.

He then took his time writing in the Visitor's Book. Mr. Advani also paid his respects at the graves of Pakistan's first Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan and Jinnah's sister, Fatima, who played an important role in Pakistan's politics after her brother's death. He spent some time at the site museum, where several items used by Jinnah are displayed.

A milestone in improving India, Pakistan ties

Talking to the media, Mr. Advani termed his visit to the Mazar a "milestone" in improving Pakistan-India relations. The gesture is reminiscent of the former Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee's historic trip to Lahore in 1999, when he visited the Minar-e-Pakistan that is considered a symbol of the idea of Pakistan. Both visits apparently sought to counter the widespread belief in Pakistan that India has never accepted its very existence.

Pakistan is not pressing on with the first information report lodged in Karachi's Jamshed Quarters police station on September 10, 1947 against Mr. Advani, then an RSS organiser in Karachi, and 17 others for allegedly conspiring to kill Jinnah and other leaders.

No case against Advani

News of the FIR was leaked to the media when Mr. Advani in 2002 presented Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf with India's most-wanted list of criminals that Pakistan was allegedly harbouring. The Pakistan Government now says it is unaware of any criminal case against Mr. Advani.

This should suit Mr. Advani, who has repeatedly stated during his Pakistan visit that the past should be left behind, particularly to questions on his role in the failure of the Agra talks, the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the targeting of Muslims in Gujarat.

(The writer is a staffer with The News, based in Karachi)

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