The Hindu : Opinion / Letters to the Editor : The Jinnah row

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Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

The Jinnah row

The Sangh Parivar's strong criticism of M.A. Jinnah is understandable because of its avowed policy of dividing the people to achieve its political goals. But the panic reaction of the Congress objecting to L.K. Advani's description of Jinnah as secular is surprising. Before harping on the past, and judging people and events in retrospect, we should learn a lesson or two from Israel that does not mind dealing with Germany, and Japan that enjoys good ties with the U.S. even after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

Majeeda Mohammed,
Hyderabad

* * *

The furore over Mr. Advani's remarks proved that he is no Atal Bihari Vajpayee. On many occasions, Mr. Vajpayee too said things that were not acceptable to the Hindutva brigade. His remarks on the Gujarat riots and Narendra Modi bear testimony to the fact. But he was never targeted the way Mr. Advani has been. Maybe Mr. Advani was seen within the Sangh Parivar as the main architect of political Hindutva. Hence the refusal to forget and forgive.

Sarfaraz Khalid,
Aligarh, U.P.

* * *

According to Rajaji, Jinnah diced with the idea of Pakistan to extract the maximum concessions for Muslims from the Congress. He was disillusioned over the eventual truncation of Punjab and Bengal. He realised the geographical impracticability of Pakistan.

That was why he chose to be less theocratic and more cosmopolitan. Mr. Advani by recalling Jinnah's speech to the Constituent Assembly conveyed the message that theocracy cannot override geography or culture.

S. Sankaran,
Chennai

* * *

Nehru says in his autobiography: "[Jinnah] disagreed [with the Congress] on political grounds but it was not politics in the main that kept him away ... temperamentally he did not fit in at all with the New Congress. He felt completely out of his element in the Khadi clad crowd demanding speeches in Hindustani ... he drifted away from the Congress, and became a rather solitary figure in Indian politics ...

"Communal rivalry and tension had increased and the Moslem League, under Mr. M.A. Jinnah's leadership, was aggressively anti nationalist and narrow minded and continued to pursue an astonishing course ... It was a negative programme of hatred and violence, reminiscent of Nazi methods ..."

One needs nothing more to understand that Jinnah, an irreligious person, exploited religion to further his own interests. He succeeded in creating a nation over the blood spilt by thousands of Indians.

P. Venkat Narayanan,
Chennai

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