PEOPLE & PLACE

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a “great leader” and was unfairly “demonised” by India for his role in the Partition, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh has said.

In an interview with CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme, Singh credited Jinnah for having “created” Pakistan. “Oh yes, because he created something out of nothing and single-handedly stood against the might of the Congress party and against the British who didn't really like him ... (Mahatma) Gandhi himself called Jinnah a great Indian. Why don't we recognise that? Why don't we see (and try to understand) why he called him that?” he said.

Singh, whose book, “Jinnah – India, Partition, Independence”, was released recently, said Jinnah fought the British for an independent India in addition to fighting resolutely and relentlessly for the Muslims of India. “The acme of his nationalistic achievement was the 1916 Lucknow Pact of Hindu-Muslim unity,” he added.

To questions on whether he subscribed to the popular demonisation of Jinnah in India, Singh said: “Of course I don't.” He said the view held by many in India that Jinnah hated Hindus was a mistake. He said Jinnah's “demonisation” was a direct result of the trauma of Partition.

Singh said he admired Jinnah's character and his status as a self-made man the most. “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. Nehru, not Jinnah, whose belief in a centralised system had led to the Partition.

Singh also claimed that the Muslims of India had a deep-rooted psychological insecurity, adding “We (Indians) treat them as aliens.” He claimed Muslims had “paid a price in Partition” and claimed that “they would have been signif-icantly stronger in a united India”.