Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in under fire over the Mohammad Ali Jinnah issue once again following senior party leader Jaswant Singh's remarks to CNN-IBN praising Pakistan's founding father.
Jaswant's remarks have invited severe criticism both from the Congress as well as the Rastriya Swamsewak Sangh (RSS).
"I would admire that in any man, self-made man, who resolutely worked towards achieving what he had set out to," Jaswant had replied when asked if he admired the way he (Mohammad Ali Jinnah) created success for himself.
By speaking his mind, senior Jaswant has set a cat among the pigeons. In his new book Jinnah-India, Participation, Independence he has called Mohammed Ali Jinnah a secular Muslim and a nationalist who was betrayed by Jawaharlal Nehru's Congress.
In doing so, Jaswant has gone one step further than LK Advani who made similar remarks three years ago in Pakistan.
"BJP and Jaswant Singh have shown their patriotism by denegrating India's first Prime Minister and eulogising Pakistan's Quaid-e-Azam. The BJP became the 'Bharatiya Jinnah Party' when Advani called Jinnah secular. Now Jaswant Singh has only confirmed that status," said Congress Spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
The book also has other provocative remarks.
It is not just Jinnah's anti-Congressism that Jaswant pays a tribute to in his new book. He also writes admiringly about Jinnah's elegant dressing and suave lifestyle, perhaps rubbing the Sangh Parivar the wrong way yet again.
After all Jinnah is the man the Sangh Parivar loves to hate, add to that Jaswant Singh's claim that Muslims in post-Independence India are treated as 'aliens'.
"We completely disagree with Jaswant Singh lauding Jinnah, we will read the book and take up this issue with the BJP," said RSS leader Ram Madhav.
Jaswant is already in rebellion mode and with his new book he has drawn another battleline within the saffron party.
So far the BJP leadership has maintained silence, saying that it will only react after the official launch of the book on Monday.
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