Congress along with Jinnah, Mountbatten facilitated India’s partition: BJP

With the new National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) module holding Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Viceroy Lord Mountbatten and the Indian National Congress party responsible for India’s partition in 1947, the BJP on Saturday accused the grand old party of facilitating the division of the country on the basis of religion.

BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia, interacting with the media persons here, drew an analogy between Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and alleged that it was because of the Congress that the country witnessed the horrors of partition.
He said that Jinnah and Rahul have become synonymous with each other as their thoughts are similar.

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“Poisonous politics of appeasement and stoking communal discord, which Jinnah dwelled on, is visible in Rahul’s approach today,” Bhatia said.

Jinnah used to say that Sharia should define the lives of the Muslim community, and today’s Congress party stands nowhere different from this, the BJP leader said.

He further said that the new generation has a right to know why partition happened and what the reason was behind it.

“When questions about Partition will be raised, the grand old party will owe an explanation as to why the division of the country took place in 1947,” he said.

BJP leader Rakesh Sinha also saw merit in NCERT’s manual, documenting the role of the Congress party in the country’s division on religious lines.

He said that Jinnah was a communal ideologue, who sowed discord and hatred in the minds of people, and termed British Viceroy Lord Mountbatten as the ‘evil force’ who was sent to execute it.

However, the blame squarely falls on the Congress party as it gave up before the communal forces and voices, despite being the only political force at that time, he said.

“Had Congress not practised a policy of appeasement since 1909, the Partition wouldn’t have happened. In spite of crushing communal forces, Congress embraced such forces with both hands,” the former Parliamentarian pointed out.

The NCERT module, created for ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’, and sparked controversy, blamed three figures for the Partition of India — first, Jinnah, who demanded it, second, the Congress, which accepted it; and third, Mountbatten, who implemented it.

The NCERT has prepared two separate modules for school-going children- one for Classes 6 to 8 (middle stage) and another for Classes 9 to 12 (secondary stage).