Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence!

Trouble Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter 337

Palash Biswas

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"Thirty years of my political life with the BJP and (being expelled) on this note : saddened me and on the ground for writing a book, that saddened me even more, immensely more," a visibly upset Singh, a founding member of the party, told reporters.
more by Jaswant Singh - 18 minutes ago - Reuters India (1 occurrences)

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Key excerpts from Jaswant Singh's book
IANS 19 August 2009, 07:17pm IST

NEW DELHI: Excerpts from "Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence" by Jaswant Singh, the veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader whose views on the
Pakistan founder led to his expulsion from the party Wednesday:

"The basic and structural fault in Jinnah's notion remains a rejection of his origins; of being an Indian, having been shaped by the soil of India, tempered in the heat of Indian experience. Muslims in India were no doubt subscribers to a different faith but that is all; they were not any different stock or of alien origin."

- & -

"It is in this, a false 'minority syndrome' that the dry rot of partition first set in, and then unstoppably it afflicted the entire structure, the magnificent edifice of an united India. The answer (cure?), Jinnah asserted, lay only in parting, and Nehru and Patel and others of the Congress also finally agreed. Thus was born Pakistan".

- & -

"His opposition was not against the Hindus or Hinduism, it was the Congress that he considered as the true political rival of the Muslim League, and the League he considered as being just an 'extension of himself'. He, of course, made much of the Hindu-Muslim riots (1946; Bengal, Bihar, etc.) to 'prove the incapacity of Congress Governments to protect Muslims; and also expressed fear of "Hindu raj" to frighten Muslims into joining the League, but during innumerable conversations with him I can rarely recall him attacking Hindus or Hinduism as such. His opposition, which later developed into almost hatred, remained focused upon the Congress leadership' (M.R.A. Baig, Jinnah's secretary)."

- & -

"Religion in all this was entirely incidental; Pakistan alone gave him all that his personality and character demanded. If Mr. Jinnah was necessary for achieving Pakistan, Pakistan, too was necessary for the fulfillment of Mr. Jinnah."

- & -

"However, it has to be said, and with great sadness, that despite some early indications to the contrary, the leaders of the Indian National Congress, in the period between the outbreak of war in 1939 and the country's partition in 1947, showed in general, a sad lack of realism, of foresight, of purpose and of will."

- & -

"As (Maulana Azad) wrote in his memoirs, he had come to the conclusion that Indian federation should deal with just three subjects: defence, foreign affairs and communications; thus granting the maximum possible autonomy to the provinces. According to the Maulana, Gandhi accepted this suggestion, while Sardar Patel did not."

- & -

"For, along with several other there is one central difficult that India, Pakistan, Bangladesh face: our 'past' has, in reality never gone into the 'past', it continues to reinvent itself, constantly becoming our 'present', thus preventing us from escaping the imprisonment of memories. To this we have to find an answer, who else can or will?"

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Key-excerpts-from-Jaswant-Singhs-book-/articleshow/4911874.cms

Jaswant Singh, whose book eulogising Mohd Ali Jinnah has come under attack from BJP and the sangh parivar, was today expelled from the BJP.

Advani took decision to expel Jaswant Singh!

Meanwhile, Six farmers have committed suicide in various parts of Vidarbha as drought situation looms large over the region, an NGO has claimed.

The suicides were committed since yesterday, Kishore Tiwari of Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti, tracking farmers suicides in the region, said in a release.

The deceased have been identified as Vijay Bodhe, Mahapal (Yavatmal), Vishwanath Gavne, Pimpri (Amravati), Ramesh Maraskolhe, Pathrat (Yavatmal), Ramchandra Mungale, Bhishi (Chandrapur), Dilip Nandne, Ithlapur (Wardha) and Arun Dakhre, Yenikini (Nagpur), the release said.

He said as many as 38 farmers have ended their lives in August and 62 farmers in last 18 days in Maharashtra, he added.

Top BJP leaders began a brainstorming session here over the state of affairs in the party against the backdrop of Lok Sabha defeat and
internal bickerings that have marred its image with senior leader Jaswant Singh keeping away from the opening session.

Singh, from whose book hailing Mohd Ali Jinah, the party has distanced itself totally, was in Shimla still staying put in his room of a hotel different from Peterhoff Hotel where the three-day 'Chintan Baithak' is being held.

Jaswanth Singh releasing his book on Jinnah in New Delhi on Tuesday

There was no difference between Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammed Ali Jinnah and the term Muslim state is a misnomer. These are some of the
observations made by BJP leader Jaswant Singh in his new book titled `Jinnah-India, Participation, Independence'.

In what may ruffle many feathers even within the Sangh Parivar, Singh observes in his book that Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel together conceded Pakistan to Jinnah with help from the British.

Patel occupies a pride of place in BJP's historiography with the party eulogising his tough action for the integration of rebellious Hyderabad and Junagarh with the Union, and contrasting it with the Nehru's "blunder" in taking the Kashmir issue to the UN.

The response of the partymen in the saffron stronghold of Gujarat where Patel has a cult status, may be interesting to watch.

In his book which will hit the stands on August 17, he recalls the events leading to Partition as well as the "epic journey of Jinnah from being the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, the liberal constitutionalist and Indian nationalist to the Quaid-e-Azam of Pakistan".

"Jinnah did not win Pakistan, as the Congress leaders Nehru and Patel finally conceded Pakistan to Jinnah, with the British acting as an ever helpful midwife," Singh says in his 669-page book.

Singh goes on to state in the book that religion could not have been the basis for nationhood. "The cruel truth is that this partitioning of India has actually resulted in achieving the very reverse of the originally intended purpose; partition, instead of settling contention between communities has left us a legacy of markedly enhanced Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or other such denominational identities, hence differences,'' says the book which also describes reservation as a political tool.

"The searing agony of it torments still, the whys and what-fors of it, too. We relieve the partition because we persist without attempts to find answers to the great errors of those years so that we may never, ever repeat them. Also, perhaps by recounting them we attempt to assuage some of our pain," the former foreign minister writes.

According to Singh, both Jinnah and Nehru wanted special status for Muslims. "It is ironical that among the great constitutionalists of those times, Jinnah and Nehru became the principal promoters of special status for Muslims'; Jinnah directly and Nehru indirectly,'' adding that both were trying to be spokesmen for Muslims.

The decision to expel Singh, a Lok Sabha member and a former Union Minister, was taken at the Parliamentary Board of the party which met here during the opening session of the three-day brainstorming session of the top leaders here.

BJP President Rajnath Singh, who had yesterday issued a statement totally distancing the party from Jaswant Singh's book "Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence", announced the decision to the media here.

"I had issued a statement yesterday that the party fully dissociates itself from the contents of the book. Today I put up the matter before the Parliamentary Board which decided to end his primary membership.

"So he has been expelled. From now now onwards he will not not be a member of any body of the party or be an office bearer," he said on the expulsion of the 71-year-old party veteran.

Rajnath Singh said yesterday he had told Jaswant Singh not not to come to Shimla for participating in the 'chintan baithak'.

Jaswant Singh has been having an uneasy relationship with the party leadership ever since the Lok Sabha elections on which he had circulated a note demanding thorough discussion on the debacle

I have nothing to do with RSS, BJP or Jaswant Singh as they are Known to do everything to sustain the Aparteid Manusmriti Zionist Hegemony in Soth Asia in US Corporate interest. Gandhi nahru dynasty is CHALLENGED and RSS reacts most Violently. I have not read the BOOK. But we all respect the FREEDOM of Expression. Freedom of Thought! But Imperialism as well as Fascism associated with ZIONISM bank on TOTAL Mind Control. RSS is NEVER Delinked with either the CONG led UPA or the Selfstyled Marxists in India. Indian Political System is meant for ENSLAVEMENT and Persecution of Indigenous Aboriginal Minority ComMunities!

It is TRUE that Transfer of Power the BRHMIN Bania Raj was MANIPULATED to deny the INDIAN People INDEPENDENCE and sovereignity. In fact, we do Celebrate only the TRANSFER of Power and the RULING Hegemony glorifies their version of Struggle for FREEDOM as well as The PARTITION Time! Jaswant Singh has attacked the Ruling Dynasty but the DYNASTY itself creates the BLIND Nationalism to Sustain Manusmriti Rule!

Just as the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) idea of India is that of a Hindu nation and not a multicultural one, Jaswant Singh's interpretation of Mohammed Ali Jinnah's pre-1947 role is at odds with the widely held perceptions in India. As the objectiove version of History missing and Politics of RELIGION was initiated by MK Gandhi himself with the Slogan of HIND Swaraj! Basically, Hind Swaraj and Hindu Rashtra are just two sides of the Same Coin! We know, OPLITICALLY, RSS always have held GANDHI and Nehru responsible for partition! But in a AMERICANISED Colonial Polity, enslaved ECONOMY, Zionst War Set Up, RSS had to POT for the DEFENCE of Nehru whom they hate most! What an Irony!

For the second time in five years, Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah has come to haunt the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party
which espouses the cause of Hindus. Invoking of his name first nearly claimed the job of party president LK Advani and now has scalped Jaswant Singh, senior party leader.

In 2005, then BJP chief Advani got into trouble when, during a six-day visit to Pakistan, he spoke of Jinnah's "forceful espousal of a secular state in which every citizen would be free to practice his own religion".

The remarks stirred a hornet's nest in the party that dissociated itself with his views. Such was the groundswell of opinion against his remarks -- seen to be heretical to the party's long-held views that Jinnah was a Muslim communalist and the villain behind the partition of the subcontinent -- that Advani was forced to offer to step down as party president.

"I have not said or done anything in Pakistan which I need to retract or review," he said then and described the founder of Pakistan as one of the "very few who actually created history".

History repeated four years later with his party colleague Jaswant Singh falling victim to the Jinnah syndrome when, after five years of research, he came out with his book "Jinnah -- India, Partition, Independence".

In his book, Jaswant Singh maintained that Jinnah was "demonised" for no reason and that it was Jawaharlal Nehru's "highly centralised polity" that led to the Partition of India. Singh also blamed Sardar Patel, India's first home minister.

"Jinnah did not win Pakistan, as the Congress leaders Nehru and Patel finally conceded Pakistan to Jinnah, with the British acting as an ever helpful midwife," Singh has said in an interview to a TV channel.

However, with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the BJP, strongly disagreeing with Jaswant Singh's views, the party leadership had little option.

Speaking about the man to whom he has devoted a tome, Singh said he admired Jinnah's character.

"I admire certain aspects of his personality. His determination and the will to rise. He was a self-made man. Mahatma Gandhi was the son of a Diwan. All these (people), Nehru and others, were born to wealth and position. Jinnah created for himself a position. He carved in Bombay, a metropolitan city, a position for himself," he said

By arguing that the founder of Pakistan has been unfairly demonised for partitioning the country, Singh not only went against the BJP's views, which has now expelled him, but also against an overwhelming majority of public opinion in India. BJP and RSS have no OBJECTIVE View of the Past and MUSLIM HATRED being the IDEOLOGICAL base of the Fascist setup , it may not bear with any INVESTIGATION in the PAST which would rather EXPOSE the ultimate TRUTH that the Transfer of Power was hesitantly Manipulated for Brahmin Bania raj which is now CORPORATE TRIBLIS ZIONIST Political System naked! It also claries the PERCEPTION in India that Jinnah invented TWO nation tehory to accomplish the Great Divide! The History of Bengal, on which I have wtritten so many times , proves that the MUSLIMS never supported MUSLIM league as the LEAGUE was launched in DHAKA. BUT the Hindutva Forces POLARISED the Population and launched HATE Campaign to COMMUNALISE Indian MASSES and CREATED the GRass ROOT Lvel Bases of Muslim League! Muslim dominated EAST Bengal voted against the Partition while the Brahmin Dominated west Bengal not only EXECUTED partition with surgical Precission in alliance with Nehru and Patel, but also MANIPULATED the Map of Partition as the Hindu Dominated East bengal Districts inhibited by Scheduled castes and TRIBES were given aweay to Pakistan to ensure BRAHMIN Raj in Bengal as well as In INDIA! The REFUGEE Influx continues even today! Refugee Problem is not addressed even today. Already resettled and scattered all over the COUNTRY, the Dalit Bengali refugees face DEPORTATION in NILEKANI PRANAB ADWANI MAMATA raj!

In addition, Jaswant courted further controversy by arguing that it was actually Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel who were more responsible for dividing the country than Jinnah. While, this is mandatory to know and revisit Partitio TimeQ

Before considering Singh's historical fallacies, it may be instructive to examine his possible motives. In doing so, it is necessary to recall that before him, another BJP leader, L.K. Advani, had praised Jinnah to the surprise and embarrassment of many in the BJP and earned the displeasure of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

However, Advani's adulation of the Quaid-e-Azam was more historically valid than Singh's, for he quoted Jinnah's celebrated speech of Aug 11, 1947, to emphasise his secularism.

In that speech, which Pakistani historian Ayesha Jalal compared with the Magna Carta and another historian, Akbar S. Ahmed, with Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address, Jinnah had outlined his vision of the new country where 'Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State'.

There is little doubt that there has rarely been such a remarkable exposition of secularism before or after that speech, which is ignored in today's Pakistan and which was described as 'a serious lapse on his (Jinnah's) part' by Sharif-ul-Mujahid, director of the Quaid-e-Azam Academy in the 1980s.

However, Advani's discovery of it nearly six decades after it was delivered suggests a personal motive rather than a belated attempt to set the record straight. The explanation perhaps lies in the BJP leader's attempt to pose as a moderate after the realisation that his hawkish image as the 'rath yatri' (his famous chariot-led march) of 1990 was no longer paying political dividends.

Arguably, a similar motivation guided Jaswant Singh. He, too, seemed to have realised after the party's second successive defeat in a general election that it had reached a dead end so far as the espousal of its Hinduttva philosophy is concerned. Not surprisingly, Singh had wanted the BJP to take a fresh look at its pro-Hindu world view.

By praising Jinnah, the MP from Darjeeling apparently wanted to distance himself from his party's anti-minority outlook and chart a new political course for himself as a moderate. But, predictably, his first step in this direction evoked the ire of both his party and the RSS.

While Advani was relieved of his position as the party chief under pressure from the RSS following his pro-Jinnah observations, Singh, who is a much lesser figure, has had to pay a heavier price for defying the party line.

But, irrespective of the political fallout, what has to be considered are the distorted analyses of the events prior to independence in his book: 'Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence'. His failure to understand why Jinnah is excoriated in India is a strange affectation considering that it was the Muslim League leader's two-nation theory which paved the way for partition to the accompaniment of communal violence sparked by his dangerously provocative Direct Action to secure Pakistan.

Once the religious passions had been whipped up by Jinnah, based on his 'Islam is in danger' assertion because of the dominance of Hindus under Congress rule, there was little that Nehru and even Mahatma Gandhi could do to stem the tide.

True, the Congress also made mistakes. For instance, a more accommodative attitude towards the Muslim League in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) after the Congress's 1937 election victory could have diffused the situation. As M.R.A. Baig, one of Jinnah's advisors, said: 'Pakistan never came to Jinnah's mind till about 1939... When the Congress formed the provincial government (in UP), he expected them to form a Congress-League coalition, which was his concept of Hindu-Muslim unity...'
'It was only when the Congress, wedded to political theories perfectly applicable to Britain, such as majority party government, and not recognising that in Indian conditions, a numerical majority could be synonymous with a communal majority ... that he turned to Pakistan.'

There were other miss-steps, too, as noted by Abul Kalam Azad in his 'India Wins Freedom' as when Nehru said that the Congress would enter the constituent assembly 'completely unfettered by agreements'. Since Jinnah interpreted this as a rejection of the Cabinet Mission plan, which the Muslim League had accepted, he also repudiated it and said that Pakistan remained the only course left for his party.

Even if the Congress' authoritarian instincts (which again manifested themselves during the 1975-77 Emergency) made it dismissive of other parties, they are not sufficient to explain Jinnah's transformation from a constitutionalist to a votary of street violence and from an 'ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity' to a patron of communal carnage.

As is clear, there were two Jinnahs - one a hero and the other a villain. The hero was driven by his thwarted ambitions because of the ascendancy of Gandhi and Nehru to turn into its opposite with a vengeance. Jaswant Singh's mistake is that he ignores this final phase of Jinnah's career.

Advani took decision to expel Jaswant Singh

"Expel Jaswant Singh from primary membership of the party". With these words, LK Advani sealed the fate of the veteran Bharatiya Janata

Party (BJP) leader as the party's parliamentary board sat on Wednesday ahead of the 'chintan baithak' to decide on his alleged ideological transgressions.

When some party leaders wondered aloud at the closed-door session if it was indeed the right course of action to take against someone who had been with the party since its inception and if the decision would not haunt him later ("Aap pe to yeh chipkega"), Advani said with finality that he was not worried, according to a party leader present at the fateful meeting.

This was in spite of the fact that the two leaders were known to be close and Jaswant Singh always had high personal regard for Advani, addressed him always by his first name "Lalji" and supported his prime ministerial bid before the elections.

The two seem to have had a fallout after Jaswant Singh joined Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie in seeking an internal debate to find out reasons for the poll debacle, fix responsibility and chart out the party's future ideological direction.

Jaswant Singh has earned the party's ire with his views on Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah in his book "Jinnah: India - Partition - Independence", released two days ago.

Ironically, Advani's website carried his statement praising Jinnah's professed commitment to secularism and his laudatory speeches during his visit to Pakistan four years ago. It was this remark that earned the ire of the party hardliners then and Advani was forced to offer to resign as party president before saying he had been "persuaded" to rescind the decision.

Advani, in his autobiography "My Country, My Life", also defended his views on Jinnah and said criticism of his views at that time were unfounded.

From BJP's Hanuman, I am now its Ravana: Jaswant
He had gone from being the party's Hanuman to its Ravana, a tearful Jaswant Singh said on Wednesday shortly after he got a phone call from

The BJP-RSS Standoff

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh that he had been expelled from the party.

Saying that he was "sad and regretful", the 71-year-old former union minister, who has held the portfolios of defence, finance and external affairs, said he got a phone call at 1 pm from Rajnath Singh informing him that he had been expelled from the "basic membership of the party".

"It is sad and I regret it for a number of reasons, which I cannot explain in detail," Jaswant Singh said in Shimla where the BJP began its three-day introspection meeting on Wednesday.

The expulsion comes two days after the release of his controversial book praising Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, "Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence".

Also Read
→ Jaswant Singh expelled from BJP
→ BJP's 'chintan baithak' to kickstart today
→ Book controversy not new for Jaswant Singh
→ BJP brainstorming session begins, Jaswant stays away

He referred to a cartoon in India Today magazine that had portrayed him as Hanuman and said he had now become the Ravana of the BJP.

"I have been a member of the BJP since it was formed (in 1980)," he said.

"I had never imagined that 30 years of my service would have ended this way. It's regretful," the visibly emotional Jaswant Singh added.

He said he also "regretted" that the party president informed him about the decision over the phone and not personally.

"I would have stepped down had they informed me in person," he said.

"I am worried and sad that just one book has led to my expulsion," he added, wondering what would happen if "soch, vichar and chintan" (thinking and introspection) stopped in Indian politics.

He, however, said he didn't regret writing the book.

"They (BJP leaders) have not even read it completely."

Book controversy not new for Jaswant Singh

IANS reports:

Senior leader Jaswant Singh has been expelled from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for his book praising Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the

founder of Pakistan, but this is not the first time his writings have touched off controversy.

In his previous book titled "A Call to Honour: In Service of Emergent India in 2006", he alleged that there was a mole in the Prime Minister's Office in the nineties during the tenure of PV Narasimha Rao of the Congress who leaked information to American sources.

Soon after the release of the book, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh disputed this and asked him to name the mole.

Jaswant Singh then said he had sent him a letter, but Manmohan Singh said the letter neither had any signature nor the name of the mole. The former external affairs minister defended himself saying he had a "strong hunch" that information was being leaked from the PMO.

His latest book, 'Jinnah -- India, Independence, Partition', released on Monday lauds the founder of Pakistan and holds India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and its first home ministere Vallabhbhai Patel responsible for the country's partition in 1947.

According to his profile posted on parliament website, this is the 71-year-old leader's tenth book.

Jaswant Singh, a central figure in the governments of prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who was summarily expelled by the Bharatiya

Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday, was a key member of the party's core decision-making group though never a mass leader.

During his six-year stint in the government, he experienced both highs and lows. The acme of his achievement was his exhaustive rounds of a dialogue that he as external affairs minister minister held with Strobe Talbott, his counterpart in the US administration, following the 1998 Indian nuclear test.

They met as many as 14 times in seven countries between June 1998 and September 2000. These talks have been widely acknowledged by present US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as having laid the groundwork for the eventual transformation of Indo-US ties.

The low point in his ministerial career was when he led Pakistani terrorists to freedom in Kandahar in Afghanistan in December 1999 after the hijack of flight IC-814 by Islamists.

Between 1980, when he first became a Rajya Sabha member, and now, as a Lok Sabha MP from Darjeeling, he has been the defence, the finance and the external affairs minister- very few have handled all three portfolios- besides being on many committees of parliament.

He was also conferred the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 2001.

His trademark epaulettes and his customary evening drink were the only vestiges of his army background that he carried with him after joining politics.

The man who joined the BJP at its inception in 1980 was never identified with any camp in the BJP; nor was he close to the party's ideological parent the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Jaswant Singh, a liberal democrat who was all for economic reforms when he was the finance minister during the BJP-led government between 1999 and 2004, is a prolific writer who has authored ten books.

The latest, 'Jinnah- India, Partition, Independence,' cost him his membership of the BJP.

The 1938 born Singh hails from Rajasthan and is an alumnus of Mayo College and the National Defence Academy in Khadakvasla near Pune.

Singh spent much of his career as an MP in the Rajya Sabha. But he was elected to the Lok Sabha twice. This time, he won from Darjeeling with the support of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha whom the BJP promised a separate Gorkhaland if it came to power.

BJP has made a fool of itself: Lord Meghnad Desai

Lord Meghnad Desai, noted economist and professor emeritus of the London School of Economics, Wednesday hit out at the BJP for expelling
Jaswant Singh, saying "it was a bad move" and the party had made a "fool of itself".

"It is a very bad move by the BJP for it shows how intolerant the party has become," Lord Desai, who was presented the launch of Jaswant Singh's book, told IANS in the capital.

Singh was expelled from the primary membership of his party for his interpretation of Mohammed Ali Jinnah's role in the partition the country in 1947 in his book, "Jinnah- India, Partition and Independence" barely two days after it was released.

Singh held Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel responsible for the partition in his book saying Jinnah had been unnecessarily demonised.

"Jaswant has written a fine book which needs analysing, discussing and debating. He has raised very interesting questions. It's a pity that that the BJP has not read the book and has made a fool of itself," Lord Desai, who was present at the launch of the book, told IANS.

He said the party had acted in a "pre-determined manner without any evidence".

"Our minds are closed and we have nothing more to learn. I feel very sorry for the BJP and I wish that India had a decent opposition party," Lord Desai said.

Lord Desai said BJP was "not a party of the future".

"It is shocking for young India as BJP had been trying to reinvent itself to identify with the country's youth," the well-known economist said.

"One should welcome and encourage politicians to write books. Jaswant Singh is the only senior politician to have addressed the issue of partition on the last 50 years after Maulana Azad addressed it in his book, 'India Wins Freedom'," Desai said.

Lord Desai said "Jaswant Singh had read everything on partition and the book was detailed and well-documented".

"The book is not dogmatic at all. But why should we be full of prejudices. May be, the Congress was as responsible for the partition as the Muslim League. But why should the BJP bother about it. In fact, Sardar Patel was closely associated with Nehru in the decision to break India in April 1947. By June, it was all over," he said.

Desai, whose yet-to-be-released new book "Rediscovery of India" also revisits the partition of India but "from a different perspective", said "he has more or less gone through the same material as Jaswant Singh to research his book."

"He has looked at every document and records. We can always have different ideas, but as a writer one must have the idea to express them without being discriminated. It happens in America all the time. People raise controversial issues. Why should people in India be reluctant to raise questions that can be debated?" Desai said.

Jaswant's expulsion a 'sign' of BJP's collapse: Karat

CPI-M said the expulsion of Jaswant Singh from BJP over the controversy triggered by his book on Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a
"sign of collapse" of the saffron party.

"BJP has now expelled one of its national leaders from the party. This is a sign of the collapse of the party after its drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls", CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said at a party rally here this evening.

With the electorate rejecting BJP's "communal policies", the people would be increasingly reposing their faith in the Left, he claimed.

In the prevailing circumstances, it was the responsibility of Left parties to live up to the expectations of the masses, he added.

Jaswant Singh’s expulsion boon for Gorkhaland: GJM

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) Wednesday termed
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh’s expulsion from the party Wednesday as a “boon for the Gorkhaland movement” as the leader can now “work freely” for the realisation of a separate state.

“Jaswant Singh is now free of party fetters. This development is a boon and not a bane for the Gorkhaland movement. He can now use his immense contacts at the national level for furthering our cause,” GJM central committee member and publicity secretary Harka Bahadur Chhetri told IANS.

Jaswant Singh, who has held defence, finance and external affairs portfolios in the BJP-led governments was expelled for his controversial book praising Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, “Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence”.

The GJM, spearheading the demand for a Gorkhaland out of Darjeleing and some adjacent areas in West Bengal, ensured Jaswant Singh’s victory from Darjeeling in the general elections this April-May.

Chhetri said the BJP cannot backtrack on its stand of supporting the creation of Gorkhaland as the issue figured in the party’s election manifesto.

“We supported Jaswant Singh only because the BJP nominated him. If the BJP had named any other candidate we would have gone all out to ensure his victory also. So, our relations with the BJP will also not be affected,” Chhetri said.

At the same time the GJM was happy with the progress of talks in the third round of tripartite talks recently in Delhi.

“The result of this round of tri-partite is positive. We will continue our negotiations with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre.”

19/08/2009

Jaswant's view on Jinnah has scholarly backing

Boston, Aug 19 (IANS) Years before veteran politician Jaswant Singh, who was expelled from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday, a well-known historian here was championing Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah's many admirable qualities, including his passion for a united India.

Ayesha Jalal, professor of history at Tufts University, has for long spoken about Jinnah's failed quest to remain within a united India while guaranteeing the Muslim community equal rights.

Her book 'The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and Demand for Pakistan' is widely regarded as the most definitive work on Jinnah and the circumstances that led to the creation of Pakistan.

'My understanding of Jinnah, and I have done substantial research on him, is that he never really abandoned the idea of a united India,' Jalal says in an upcoming documentary on Jinnah and the creation of Pakistan by US-based journalist Mayank Chhaya.

'A united India for him included a Pakistan. He invoked Pakistan based on the Muslim majority provinces of the northwest and northeast as a way of acquiring substantial amount of power at the all India centre,' Jalal says.

In tracing the history of developments that she says led to the movement for Pakistan as a separate state, Jalal focuses on the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946 whose mandate was to discuss the transfer of power from the British rulers to Indians as well as discuss the framing of the constitution.

In a sense the Cabinet Mission Plan was about 'layered or shared sovereignty', Jalal argues. She was referring to a three-tiered arrangement proposed in the plan which included a federal union of India, the grouping of provinces as the middle tier (which Jinnah supported) and provinces as the third-tier.

'Throughout the discussion of the Cabinet Mission the Congress Party was not willing to have the centre reduced to three subjects -- defence, foreign affairs and communication. They wanted a broader vision.

'When Jawaharlal Nehru made his famous statement that there is nobody who can stop the Constituent Assembly from enhancing the powers of the centre and we do not believe in grouping, it became untenable for Jinnah to accept the Cabinet Mission Plan. It was at that point that you begin to see a movement for a Pakistan as a sovereign state,' Jalal explains.

She says what the Cabinet Mission gave Jinnah was 'an option of a Pakistan that is based on a partition of Punjab and Bengal or remaining within the all India union with no necessary assurance of Muslim share of power at the all India centre. He accepted that, he accepted something less than a sovereign Pakistan.'

What made Jinnah 'revert back to the idea of a sovereign Pakistan', according to Jalal, was the rejection of the grouping by the Congress Party and once 'it became clear that the Congress had no intention of sharing power'.

In Jalal's telling, Jinnah was still 'hoping against hope that the British will make an award and give him an undivided Punjab and Bengal'.

Jalal's point that it was Nehru and the Congress Party that was unwilling to share power with Muslims tallies with what Jaswant Singh has said in his interview with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN. 'Nehru believed in a highly centralised polity. That's what he wanted India to be. Jinnah wanted a federal polity,' Singh has been quoted as saying.

Start packing up, RSS tells Advani

19 Aug 2009, 0503 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: In a clear signal to LK Advani, the RSS on Tuesday came out in support of handing over the reins of power within the BJP to a younger
crop of leaders in time for the next general election.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, in an interview to Times Now, favoured a generational shift in the BJP. “It’s a universal rule that the younger generation must replace the older one. But when and where this should take place is for them to decide.

Today, you say that the top-level of the BJP is in the age-group of 75-85. But 30 years ago, the situation was different. The generation, after working for 35 years, has now become old. So now they have to think of promoting younger leaders. When, where and how is their decision. This transition is taking place everywhere. In the RSS too, we’ll have to think of promoting a new set after 10-15 years,” Mr Bhagwat remarked.

The RSS chief’s observations are being interpreted as a clear signal to the BJP to bring a younger set of leaders at the helm. The party has to start preparing itself for a life beyond the Atal-Advani era, which has shepherded its affairs for the past four decades.

Mr Bhagwat’s remarks are also being seen as a hint to the 81-year-old Mr Advani to groom a younger colleague for the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The senior BJP leader had expressed his desire to step down from the post after the party’s second consecutive defeat in the general election, but was persuaded to stay on as there were fears that a bitter succession war would ravage the party after his departure.

Contrary to initial reports, Mr Advani has now made it clear that he would lead the party in the Lok Sabha for the entire term, and that he would not be leading a stop-gap arrangement.

Responding to a specific query, the RSS chief suggested that the average age of a leader at every level in the party hierarchy should be within the 55-60 bracket. That would eliminate the chances of leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi and Jaswant Singh taking over after Mr Rajnath Singh steps down in January next.

The RSS chief, in the interview, also expressed serious concern at the never-ending factional feuds and the growing indiscipline within the BJP, and wanted its leaders to do a sincere stock-taking of the party’s shortcomings at the chintan baithak, which kicks off in Shimla on Wednesday.

“Yes, it must stop immediately. It is now a bit too much,” was Mr Bhagwat’s reply to a query on the infighting that has gripped the BJP. “All this is because of some lack of balance, procedure, methods, all of which should be restored. The party leaders, in our meetings, express their angst over the developments. They are keen to restore the balance, but they must do so quickly,” he said.

The RSS chief conceded that the verdict of the 2009 general election was shocking for the BJP. “I believe that it has received a jolt unexpectedly. They lost their balance in the process. They have to regain it fast. Whatever happened was not very good. All the BJP leaders feel bad about it and have to make amends fast. How it happened? What were the mistakes? They should give thought to all these during the chintan baithak,” he said.

RSS looks to increase activities in colleges

19 Aug 2009, 0851 hrs IST, Gautam Siddharth, TNN

The RSS has launched "software shakhas" in a move to induct young, upwardly mobile IT professionals into its fold. IT Milans aren’t typical shakhas
involving exercise and games.

"These are get-togethers where issues before the nation, its culture and religion, are discussed. We've been looking for professional brains and the Pune IT sector has the potential to provide it," said Sahane. The Pune pracharaks are now planning IT Milans in Kolhapur and Solapur.

In Bangalore, the participation of young IT pros and students has reached what the pracharaks call a "respectable 2,000". They conduct 28 IT Milans a week at various locations. Many of these professionals are also volunteering to go into rural areas in Karnataka and work with Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an RSS outfit which focuses on tribal development.

"What has also helped," says Ram Madhav, "is the relaxation in the rules of our uniform. The new lot of IT volunteers no longer come in khaki shorts. We are now focussing on increasing our activities in colleges."

"There are many groups of RSS-minded IT youths who hold regular meetings. It's an informal step towards inculcating the RSS thought in young minds," says Niranjan Phadke, an IT professional.

Unlike the traditional shakhas on open grounds, the shakhas these days aren't "visible" says Madhav, which has led to the erroneous impression that these are dwindling.

"We are now appointing vidyarthi pramukhs at various levels to get the youth involved in our ideas," he says.

RSS wants younger leaders to take over BJP

19 Aug 2009, 0910 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: In a clear signal to LK Advani, the RSS on Tuesday came out in support of handing over the reins of power within the BJP to a younger
crop of leaders in time for the next general election.

Contrary to initial reports, Mr Advani has now made it clear that he would lead the party in the Lok Sabha for the entire term, and that he would not be leading a stop-gap arrangement.

To start his work, Nandan Nilekani, the boss of India's unique identity project doesn't need to look beyond his mobile phone and voter identity card.

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Now that the government has decided to assign a unique identity to each citizen in a bid to target social security services as well as assure internal security, the 1.16-billion population is waiting with bated breath. Issuing identities to all of them is a laudable, but a very long-term exercise. The day when the last Indian has been given the record will surely arrive, but we need a more modest goal post to start the project with. So, what is the minimum number of identity records that Nandan Nilekani, as the head of Unique Identity Authority of India, can issue without much sweat using the existing databases?
There are several places Nilekani sahib could be looking for: the databases of PAN card, passport, driving license, ration card, voter I-card and so on. But the first three cover only a small part of the population and the ration card data is subsumed in voter card data.

The database of voters is a credible starting point. Almost 586 million people have this card. But there is another database which is equally powerful: the mobile subscribers.

"You get 40 percent penetration straightaway and this data has been verified by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)," says Guru Malladi, partner, Ernst & Young. Mobile connections of 427 million, however, do not mean subscribers. Some subscribers have more than one connection. Research firm Gartner estimates that 10 percent of connections fall in this category.

Based on recent Department of Telecommunications audits of leading mobile operator's subscriber bona-fides, anywhere from 5 to 10 percent might turn out to be invalid. Assume 5 percent as the conservative estimate. Then there are connections being used by companies for their business operations. Add another 5 percent. The number that remains is 350 million.

So now we have two large databases, one with 586 million people in it and the other with 350 million people. There will be common entries in these two databases. You call in the experts at de-duplicating. A de-duplication expert at IIT Bombay, who has worked on government database projects, reckons when such databases are merged and the common entries removed then the size of the database can become half or even one-fourth of the total entries. Let us assume that in this case the size will be a third of 586 million and 350 million put together. That number is 312 million. If the top 5 percent of the population really isn't dependent on the services that this new identity scheme will deliver then 300 million is a good target for Nilekani.

Forbes

19/08/2009
After Nilekani, NRN to take up a government assignment
Mumbai: Infosys chief mentor, NR Narayana Murthy is likely to become the non-executive chairman of the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) being set up to handle the retail payment operations of the Reserve Bank of India.

Indian Banks Association (IBA), which is functioning as a facilitator to set up the new entity, is understood to have approached the Infosys founder to take over the new responsibility, a source close to the development said.

"IBA has approached Narayana Murthy to join the (NPCI) board. He has agreed to join the board," the source said.

Though, Narayana Murthy will not be directly involved in the operations of the company, he will guide the board on crucial operations, the source said.

Another former Infosys top executive, Nandan Nilekani had recently joined the government to head the Unique Identity Card project of the UPA government.

NPCI, which was first mentioned in the 2005-08 vision document of the central bank, is being set up to segregate all retail payment activities.

This, however, excludes, real time gross settlement (electronic) transactions, which will continue to be handled directly by the apex bank.

The Reserve Bank, which is currently burdened with the responsibility of all type of payments, plans to hand over most of the retail operations to the NPCI in the next one year.

NPCI will be majority owned by public sector banks which, together will have 51% stake in the company, while the rest of the holding will be with private and foreign sector lenders.

State-owned lenders, who will own majority stake in NPCI are State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank, Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citi and HSBC will be the other stake holders.

Former RBI CGM in charge of payment and settlement AP Hota is the interim NPCI CEO.
Hota will lead the operations of the new entity in the initial phase of operations, including the recruitment of a permanent CEO.

KPMG has been appointed as a consultant to search for suitable candidates to run NPCI.
Parliament cleared the Payment and Settlements Act, 2007, giving more power to the central bank in matters related to payment and settlement more effectively by introducing uniformity and standardisation in retail transactions.

PTI

Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence!

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