The Hindu : National : Advani erred in calling Jinnah secular: Thackeray

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Sunday, Jun 19, 2005

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Advani erred in calling Jinnah secular: Thackeray

Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who did not make even a simple appeal for peace when rivers of blood were flowing in the wake of the Partition, was not at all secular, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said on Saturday. He said his party's ties withthe BJP were on the Hindutva plank and warned that any "mischief" could jeopardise the friendship.

But Mr. Thackeray would not write off the BJP just because its president L.K. Advani called Jinnah secular "for, the party still had many good people."

He asked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to be "careful" with their language. "Do not go to such an extreme that you cannot find a way back and think where you are going," he told them in an interview to Rajya Sabha MP and executive editor of the party mouthpiece Saamana.

Mr. Thackeray said Mr. Advani erred in calling Jinnah secular and expressing regret over the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Protocol might have required him to go to the Jinnah mausoleum and place a wreath there. "When [Pakistan President Pervez] Musharraf came to New Delhi, he went to the samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi. He placed rose petals there but did not bow to it or pray out of mischief."

During the Partition, Mr. Thackeray said, he joined the Free Press Journal. Amid the bloodshed, he did not see any statement from Jinnah calling for peace, while Gandhi went to Noakhali to establish peace. Nehru held a meeting in Bengal to appeal for peace.

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