BJP: POLITICAL ILLITERACY AT ITS BEST

The seeds of vivisection of India having been sown, ceaselessly, year after year, as much by us (Hindus and Muslims) as by the post Second World War enfeebled British; for they did of course divide to rule, but we also divided ourselves; what else could then follow but a destructive break-up? Jaswant Singh in Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence

So does Jaswant Singh really sing paeans for Jinnah in his ‘controversial’ new book???

The BJP has been ripped asunder over that question and Pakistan has fallen in love with Singh for his ‘unpatriotic efforts’, but the fact remains that the limited few who have actually gone over the six hundred odd pages of Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence, have found tons of scorn for the ‘megalomaniac’ Jinnah, a stinging critique on Nehru for his inept handling of events leading up to the partition/creation of India and derision for the British Raj, for its haste to split India.

Logically it’s the Congress, not the BJP that should have been hopping mad over the ‘revelations’ in the book, but Congress’s ‘ignore don’t react’ policy stands it in good stead. (Of course any historian worth his salt would tell you that the book does not bring to light a single new fact) Nevertheless BJP loves to shoot itself in the foot. Instead of using Jaswant’s writings to its advantage (by showing historic blunders made by the Congress) – the saffron party decided to light a keg of gunpowder by banning the author from the organization and his book in one state. That ill-informed action set off a chain reaction that continues to gather momentum with each passing day. Had Rajnaath and Co. even read the following excerpts from the book – they surely would have taken a different line. But then this is not the age of the literate politician, is it?

To tackle the newly uncorked jinn of Jinnah, one must answer the fundamental question – was Jinnah secular in Jaswant’s eyes? The answer is, Yes and No.

In the first part of the book Jaswant takes great pains to show how Jinnah was a nationalist to the core, how he wanted a united India. Even as late a 1937 Jinnah was writing Gandhi, affirming his belief in an India, where Hindu’s and Muslims had equal status… ‘Nobody will welcome an honourable settlement between the Hindus and the Muslims more than I and nobody will be more ready to help it’ But that’s where BJP ‘intellectuals’ stopped reading Jaswant’s book and went off to sleep. (With Sudheendra Kulkarni not around, one doubts if there is any reading going on in the BJP at all.)

Its in the second part of the book that Jaswant tongue lashes not only the Congress but also Jinnah and the Muslim League – because both transformed form being nationalists to mindlessly communal…sample Jaswant’s words; ‘The misdemeanors of local Congressmen, the implications of Congress rhetoric on the riots, errors of administrative judgement, also instances of possible bias might not have strained Congress – Muslim relations as mush had the Muslim League not been around to scratch these already sore vulnerabilities.’ Doesn’t sound like praise at all…but it gets worse.

Pakistani’s who are now dedicating songs in praise of Jaswant Singh might want to turn to page 316 of the book where a heated exchange between Gandhi and Jinnah is recounted. Bapu making a last ditch attempt to reason with Jinnah – asking the Quaid-e-Azam what would he do with the Jats, Sikhs and Christians in Pakistan. Would they have separate nations too??? A cornered Jinnah says that they can all have separate electorates and separate existence if they so wished. (In other words Jinnah was talking about sub-nations inside the sub-nation of Pakistan) A clear inditement of the man who from an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity had became its biggest opponent and lost his logical faculties in the process.

According to Jaswant, by the time independence was knocking at India’s door – the transformation of Jinnah was complete. Calling for Direct Action in 1946 at the closing session of the League, Jinnah said, ‘Today we bid good bye to constitutional methods …. We have also forged a pistol and are in a position to use it’ So the lifelong lawyer and constitutionalist had ditched the rule book and become a fanatic himself.

Towards the end of the book - Jaswant downright degrades the Quaid-e-Azam over the issue of him suddenly, at the 11th hour, wanting to become the first Governor – General of Pakistan. ‘As for megalomania, who, in reality, suffered a more serious version of it, Jinnah or Mountbatten, is difficult to tell’ that’s the ‘praise’ for Jinnah for which Jaswant was politically executed. That the veteran leader was kicked out for reasons other than his book is no secret – but the BJP did a disservice to itself when it chose to ignore a potent political tool.

It’s a historical fact that Jinnah was secular to begin with (he was not much of a practising Mussulman himself) however his beliefs changed when he saw the Congress lust for power – while the Muslim League continued to played the fiddle. By debating over Jinnah’s ‘secular credentials’ the BJP exposed its own illiteracy. And whatever reasons drove Jinnah towards Pakistan – the Congress high handedness had a major role to play – that’s also a historical fact that Jaswant has highlighted and something that the BJP could have used.

Jaswant quotes V.P.Menon (Reforms commissioner and advisor to the Viceroy) from his book Transfer of Power, ‘The congress decided to have homogenous ministries on its own and decided to choose Muslim ministers who were members of the congress party. This was the beginning of a serious rift between the Congress and the League and was a factor which induced neutral Muslim opinion to turn to the support of Jinnah’ Not only this – Jaswant uses history to indite the grand old party…‘Congress had unanimously passed resolutions, directly or indirectly conceding Pakistan, in 1934, 1942, 1945, and March 1947. Gandhi and Nehru had also referred to partition contingency as a very possible one.’

Also in Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence Nehru’s arrogant attitude comes under fire on more than one occasion. Case in point, in February 1938 (when there is still some sort of correspondence between Nehru and Jinnah) Nehru feigns ignorance about the ‘issues’ that Jinnah has and writes ‘I am afraid that I must confess that I do not yet know what the fundamental points of dispute are’ At this late juncture in time, when the concept of Pakistan was spreading like wildfire – to claim such ignorance about ‘fundamental points of dispute’ is sheer travesty. But arrogance seems to be Nehru’s trademark; more than eager to grab the high seat of power than the welfare of the communities. That’s why even as Calcutta was being ripped apart by the worst sort of medieval riots in 1946 – Nehru was more focused on the transfer of power plan. ‘Our programme will certainly not be upset because of a few persons misbehaving in Calcutta’ Amazingly the Congress not react to Jaswant’s writings. That’s because the party knows how to let a controversy pass by and die a natural death. Case in point, when Margaret Alva did a Jaswant in the Congress party by raising a stink about the cash for votes scam. Alva wasn’t expelled – just conveniently sidelined - then quietly politically reinstated (this time as a governor). No fuss – no party linin washed in public. In this context, the political immaturity of Rajnath Singh can be understood – but what was the ‘Lau Purush’ doing when Jaswant was being given the marching orders? L.K.Advani would be one man who knew that a secular Jinnah was not taboo. (Or was his dislike for Jaswant Singh so intense?) Jinnah himself never would have imagined that his secularism (or the lack of it) would have caused such uproar half a century later.

Jaswant aptly sums up Jinnah strategy ‘In Jinnah’s mind, partition was a simple, pragmatic solution with the “Two – Nation theory’ as a temporary ideological justification and with a marked sense of a continuing unity with India despite the partition’ When Advani called Jinnah secular – it was a backhand taunt to the Pakistani establishment for the religious mess they had put the nation in, definitely not keep with Jinnah’s vision. Sadly the BJP missed the nuance then as it has now with Jaswant’s book.

Jaswant had needled the leadership the wrong way on many occasions – but he may have saved himself the expulsion had he put the last lines of his book on the jacket of Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence. The final synopsis of the book is a stinging rebuke of the very idea of Pakistan… ‘Pakistan has remained a conceptual orphan, the result of a somewhat barren attainment; ‘barren’ because Pakistan itself, as both the progenitor and as the first born of the idea, has demonstrated that this notion of Muslims being a separate nation does not work’ Jaswant may not have realized it when he wrote it – but those lines may ring true for the BJP soon… for the party risks being a conceptual orphan (of Hindutva), the result of a somewhat barren attainment (Ayodhya), ‘barren’ because it has demonstrated that the notion of a party representing one religious community … does not work.