Jinnah was secular at one time: Former RSS chief

NDTV Correspondent, Tuesday August 25, 2009, New Delhi



As the Jinnah controversy continues to haunt the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, there is more from the saffron quarters. Former RSS chief K S Sudarshan, on being asked whether Jinnah was secular, said Jinnah had many facets and at one time was totally committed to the nation."Jinnah had many facets. If you read history then you will come to know that Jinnah was with Lok Manya Tilak and was totally dedicated to the nation. And when Gandhi started the Khilafat movement, with the idea that currently we are opposing the British and if Muslims join in then their support will help gain independence. But at that time Jinnah opposed it saying that if the Caliph in Turkey has been dethroned what has India got to do with it. That time nobody listened to him, which saddened him. So he quit the Congress and left for England and only returned in 1927," said Sudarshan.Sudarshan's observation comes amid the flurry of Jaswant Singh being thrown out of the BJP for his praise for Jinnah.Party head LK Advani too had courted controversy earlier by talking about Jinnah in positive terms.

Osama bin Laden was at one time 'secular', what with holidaying in Switzerland and sitting astride a Cadillac and all that. But when American troops landed in his sacred land, he took to arms and a fanatic Islamic ideology. A Jinnah-like transformation, with more justification. What justification had Jinnah to seek to destroy a nation that had hosted Islam for over 1000 years in amity, suffered its fanaticism and got a chance with independence to start all over again? Anyone eulogizing Osama bin Laden of Al Queda fame is a terrorist – anyone eulogizing Jinnah of partition fame is a traitor.

http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/jinnah_was_secular_at_one_time_rss_chief.php?page=1#postcommentarea