| Mr. Menon, Jinnah Cannot Be Vindicated! | |||
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By: Shachi Rairikar March 23, 2007 Views expressed here are author’s own and not of this website. Full disclaimer is at the bottom. 
Feedback(The author is a Chartered Accountant working in a software company in Indore, M.P., India and manage www.indpride.com) Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon has described the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, as a ‘citizen’ of the sub-continent and said that the Jinnah House in Mumbai would be used in such a way that takes care of sensitivities of all the people of the sub-continent. Being the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Menon is of course aware of Indian history, Jinnah’s villainous role in the same and the public emotion that is deeply associated with these issues. India bestowing such respect upon the person largely responsible for her division and the death and devastation of countless of her citizens is indeed outrageous. Jinnah’s crimes against humanity in general and Indians in particular are well known. Jinnah’s ill intentions are very evident in his proclamation made on August 16, 1946, declared as the “Direct Action Day” for the purpose of winning a separate Muslim state, “We shall have India divided or we shall have India destroyed.” The fateful day had begun with political demonstration by Muslim League in Calcutta which culminated into a period of communal riots, one of the worst in Indian history, wherein thousands of Hindus were looted, injured and brutally killed. An important incident following Direct Action was the Noakhali district massacre in October 1946. Noakhali, now in Bangladesh, had a Muslim majority. The Direct Action Day riots in Calcutta spread to other regions, reaching this district where a massive pogrom was organized against the Hindu minority. The Hindus were ethnically cleansed from the region and the death toll is estimated to be in tens of thousands. During the massacre the Hindus were killed and beaten, their properties destroyed. Many Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam and Hindu women were abducted and raped. The widows of the slain Hindus were forcibly married to the Muslims after converting them to Islam at point of weapon. Muslim mobs looted and destroyed Hindu temples and forced Hindus to consume beef. Jinnah was successful in his blackmail and the Indian National Congress finally succumbed to his demand for Pakistan leading to a very painful partition of India. The resulting exchange of population and the ensuing communal carnage saw millions rendered homeless and thousands perished on both the sides of the border. Even after the partition, Pakistan has been a continued source of trouble for India. Three wars, all initiated by Pakistan, on-going infiltration, tension along the borders, cross-border terrorism, drug trafficking, ISI networks in India, the list is long. The Hindu population in Pakistan dwindled down due to the ethnic cleansing carried out systematically in the years following the partition. Atrocities and human rights violation continue to be committed against the handful of Hindu minority in Pakistan even today. In spite of Pakistan’s never ending mischief, India, in its perpetual ever forgiving mode, has made a peace initiative, trying to bring the two governments closer. Jinnah can very safely be adjudged as one of those persons in the history of the sub-continent who have been directly liable for bringing large scale death and destruction. Not a single act of his can be interpreted to be in India’s interest. Whatever might be his personal achievements or merits, Jinnah’s set of sins committed against India is so grave that he can never ever be vindicated. India venerating Jinnah would be akin to the Jews revering Hitler. Since its liberation from Pakistan, Bangladesh also owes no respect to Jinnah. Jinnah has never played any significant role in the lives of the other countries of the sub-continent, namely, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives. Of all the countries of the sub-continent, Jinnah enjoys only the respect of the people of Pakistan, the country that he almost single-handedly created. Thus, the idea of Jinnah being a ‘citizen’ of the sub-continent is indeed ridiculous and stinks of hypocrisy. India’s experiences with Jinnah are too gory to be forgotten or forgiven. We have paid a very heavy price to fulfill Jinnah’s ambition of becoming the premiere of a Muslim nation. Absolving Jinnah of his sins by conferring on him the citizenship of the sub-continent is a blatant insult to the memories of thousands of innocent Indians who were devastated by his perverted ideology and its inhuman implementation. The government of India, in its extravagantly generous effort to take care of sensitivities of all the people of the sub-continent, has conveniently chosen to trample the sentiments of her own people who form the largest chunk of the population of the sub-continent. It is also important to note here that Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes were immersed in all the major rivers of the world except the Indus as the government of Pakistan had refused to grant permission for the same on the grounds that they did not want to pollute it with the ashes of a kafir (non-Muslim). That is how Pakistan treats India’s father figure. This disgraceful attitude of Pakistan cannot and should not be allowed to be wiped off Indian memory. Shachi Rairikar
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