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On August 17,2009 Mr. Jaswant Singh a BJP Leader, released his book “Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence” a biography of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. This is the first book written by an Indian politician on the life of Jinnah & soon became the subject of controversy, subsequently leading to Singh's expulsion from the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).Further he gave an interview about the contents of the book in which he was just expressing his impression about Jinnah.He admired certain aspects of Jinnah’s personality. Let us see what was revealed by Jaswant Singh in his interview

• Jinnah fought the British for an independent India but he also fought resolutely and relentlessly for the interest of the Muslims of India. Jinnah was not a Hindu hater but he had great animosity with the Congress party and its leadership. He said so repeatedly: I have no enmity against the Hindu. Jinnah had charged Mahatma Gandhi of being a demagogue. I admire certain aspects of Jinnah’s personality: his determination and the will to rise. He was a self-made man–Mahatma Gandhi was a son of a Dewan All of them (Nehru) were born to wealth and position, Jinnah created for himself a position. He carved out in Bombay a position in that cosmopolitan city being what he was, poor. He was so poor he had to walk to work. I think we misunderstood because we needed to create a demon. Nehru believed in a highly centralized polity. That’s what he wanted India to be. Jinnah wanted a federal polity. Nehru stood in the way of a federal India until 1947 when it became a partitioned India. Jinnah in fact went to the extent of saying that let there be a Pakistan within India. A highly centralized India meant that the dominant party was the Congress party. He (Nehru) in fact said there are only two powers in India — the Congress party and the British. It became a contest between excessive majoritarianism, exaggerated minoritism and giving the referee’s whistle to the British.

The book is a ray of hope for Pakistani young politicians.Mr. Jaswant Singh deserves appreciation for splashing some light on the dark side of our history. Born in hot Rajasthan representing cool Darjeeling he has now generated a current which shocks both Congress and BJP. He is now expelled from BJP and his book is banned in Gujarat. But the truth cannot be expelled or banned.

Mr. Jaswant says

I can get expelled for writing a book. You may not agree with the book or its argument. But if we can’t think, read or write, engage in any kind of intellectual exercise or question without inviting this kind of retribution, what sort of country are we making ourselves into?