+

JINNAH CONTINUES TO REMAIN A FACTOR IN INDIAN POLITICS

Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan, a barrister and freedom fighter, continues to be a factor in the politics of the sub-continent, 74 years after the partition of India. Millions of people were killed in this unnatural divide, enforced by the British, with the reluctant concurrence of many leaders, both on the Punjab […]

Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan, a barrister and freedom fighter, continues to be a factor in the politics of the sub-continent, 74 years after the partition of India.

Millions of people were killed in this unnatural divide, enforced by the British, with the reluctant concurrence of many leaders, both on the Punjab and Bengal sides of the country. In addition, lakhs of displaced families left their homes and hearth in one of the biggest man-made tragedies of the 20th century. Families were separated from each other, women were raped and killed as total madness prevailed leading to the worst communal carnage ever witnessed in this part of the world. Jinnah was the president of the Muslim League which pressed the demand for a separate country for those belonging to that faith and the division took place on the basis of religion. This meant that Hindus who lived in what is now Pakistan, fled with whatever they could lay their hands-on, fearing for their lives, though a large number of Muslims preferred to stay back in India.

Jinnah for many historians was a pork eating follower of Islam though for him politics and religion were on many occasions not compatible with each other. Inspired by the thought of multiple scholars and the doctrine put forth by Mohammad Iqbal, a distinguished poet, philosopher and intellectual, Jinnah and his colleagues in the Muslim League succeeded in carving out Pakistan, thus sowing seeds for a division that has not healed till now.

Last week, Akhilesh Yadav, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh mentioned his name along with Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel while speaking about the freedom movement. This invoked a sharp criticism from Yogi Adityanath, the current CM, who took very strong objection to Jinnah being equated with someone like Patel, who was a unifier. The controversy has not died down with Akhilesh refusing to take back his words and claiming that the history books have recorded the contribution of those he mentioned to the freedom struggle. In the divisive politics that has been in view for the past several years, this kind of spat was not surprising. For Yogi, Jinnah represents a religion and his name, in his view perhaps, could serve to polarise the Hindu votes in the BJP’s favour. Whether that happens or not, only time can tell. Yogi is probably unaware that the BJP patriarch, L.K. Advani, whose 92nd birthday is on Monday, paid a very heavy price for praising the Pakistan founder during a visit to his mausoleum in June, 2005. Rejecting the Akhand Bharat concept propagated by the RSS ever since the partition, Advani had stated that the division was a historical reality while describing Jinnah as a secular leader. This was enough to turn the RSS, which considered Advani to be its favourite BJP leader, against him and his downhill journey in politics commenced. No Indian leader has ever praised Jinnah in the manner in which Advani, the chief architect of the BJP’s success story, had done. It was his attempt to shed his hard liner image and appear like a moderate which backfired horribly.

So far as Akhilesh goes, he does not belong to the Sangh Parivar and has said nothing in Jinnah’s praise except mentioning his name with other leaders of the freedom struggle. He may have done this deliberately to highlight that no Sangh leader participated in the liberation movement. He is obviously banking on support from the Muslims in next year’s Assembly election. Yogi is not going to let this issue die down easily since it suits his politics immensely. The fact is that Jinnah’s image of a divider remains intact.

Tags: