[Reader-list] Jaswant’s Jinnah - Karan Thapar

[Kshmendra Kaul]

Dear Taha
 
I heard it mentioned (on TV) that Jaswant Singh was asked by (whoever) in BJP to not release his book till after the elections. It is unlikely that JS did a churn-out of his book after BJP's recent reverses and after JS himself having been sidelined within the BJP. 
 
Apparently JS has not been very kind in his book towards Sardar Patel. Patel is iconically reverred in Gujarat which in many ways is BJP's strongest bastion. JS's book would therefore not seem to have much to do with BJP's greater ambitions. 
 
It seems highly unlikely to me that BJP can ever hope to garner "Muslim" support. The outsidest likelihood is if after Jan Sangh and BJP a new 'avtaar' is coalesced by factions from within the BJP which might continue to swear by "nationalism" but unambiguously declares "Hindu Nationalism" as unacceptable. 
 
In the meantime, BJP can only try to sell some promises on a constituency-to-constituency basis through the politics of caste-vote-banks which might include Muslims too. That, in my opinion, is their only hope of securing some "Muslim" support.
 
Maybe we should take JS's word for it that his book is purely an 'academic' one.
 
Kshmendra


--- On Tue, 8/18/09, Taha Mehmood <2tahamehmood at googlemail.com> wrote:


From: Taha Mehmood <2tahamehmood at googlemail.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Jaswant’s Jinnah - Karan Thapar
To: "Kshmendra Kaul" <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
Cc: "Sarai Reader-list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 7:29 PM


Dear Kshmendra,

Many thanks for posting Karan Thapar's write-up on, Jaswant Singh's
book on Jinnah, in HT. I wonder why now, particularly after its defeat
that we are witnessing a subtle change in BJP's view towards Muslims?

Jinnah who is decried by someone like Rafiq Zakaria as a 'villain' in
his passionately argued book, 'The man who divided India' is now seen
by the members of the Hindu right in India as a 'nationalist'.

I am extremely curious to know about the psychology of this volte face.

Warm regards

Taha