Jinnah-fan Jaswant faces all-round flak

BJP leader Jaswant Singh’s eulogy of Mohammad Ali Jinnah is unlikely to win him friends in his own party or the opposition. Though his views have not ignited any major row, the book has not gone down well with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP.

For now, both the parties have limited themselves to voicing their disagreement with Singh’s views.  “I have not read the book, but whatever reports have come in the media regarding the contents of the book...we do not agree with those views,” Ram Madhav, RSS spokesperson, said.

The BJP, too, fought shy of a formal reaction to the book. A BJP leader said, “These are his personal views, the party does not agree with him.” He said the party will make an official statement on Tuesday after the book is formally released.

The guarded reaction of BJP and the Sangh Parivar is in sharp contrast to the position they had taken when LK Advani called Jinnah a secular leader. Such was the intensity of the furore that Advani had to step down as party president.

Predictably, the Congress came out with a strong reaction. Trashing Singh’s book, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi accused the former foreign minister of nursing a fascination for the founder of Pakistan. “Its ironic that they see virtue in Jinnah but not in a nationalist like Maulana Azad who strove to bind the country together,” Singhvi said.