HISTORY, LEGENDS & MYTHOLOGY

American historian backs Advani

     Washington: India's Leader of Opposition LK Advani, who last year attracted a lot of criticism after calling Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah a secular leader, seems to have found a supporter in American historian Stanley Wolpert, who in his new book has said that Jinnah believed in "equal opportunities for all". Wolpert, who has written several books on Indian history and biographies of Jinnah and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, said in the book: "The Pakistan Jinnah envisioned was neither a narrow-minded theocracy nor a feudal tyranny or martial dictatorship, but a democratic polity governed by law and equal opportunities for all." Wolpert's book "Shameful Flight" is based on the Partition of India. Quoting Quaid-e-Azam's famous speech delivered at Constituent Assembly saying that Pakistani citizens were equal under the law, irrespective of their religion, he wrote in his book: "Jinnah meant every word of it, but tragically, he was mortally ill and could barely continue to work. He could do little more than to articulate his secular and liberal ideals to his Muslim followers, many of whom found them impossible to comprehend. For most of his last pain-filled year, Jinnah lacked the strength to help Pakistan create and securely establish the vital democratic institutions it so desperately needed. He was so frail during his last months that he remained bed-ridden in Balochistan's hill station Ziarat." Wolpert, also wrote in his book about an intelligence report by the chief of Punjab police Gerald Savage, which said that Master Tara Singh planned to have the Quaid-e-Azam "killed" during his swearing-in ceremonies at Karachi as Governor General of Pakistan. He further writes: "The Quaid was informed of the threat but he had faced down several previous assassination attempts, so he was unperturbed by learning of this latest 'threat' to his life, which never occurred."
-Nov 13, 2006    

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