The Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from the Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh, Guman Singh Damor, has said Partition would not have taken place had Muhammad Ali Jinnah been made the prime minister of India after Independence, ANI reported. Jinnah, who was an advocate and scholar, is the founder of Pakistan.
“Had Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru not insisted to be the first prime minister at the time of Independence, then this country would not have been divided into two parts,” Damor said at an election meeting on Saturday. The sole responsibility of Partition rests with the Congress.”
On April 27, actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who switched sides from the BJP to the Congress in the run-up to the polls, invoked Jinnah along with Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru while praising the Congress.
“The Congress family, from Mahatma Gandhi to Sardar Patel to Mohammad Ali Jinnah to Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi to Rajiv Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, it is their party” Sinha had said. “They had the most important role in development and freedom of the country. This is the reason why I have come here [to Congress].”
Later, he clarified that it was a slip of tongue and had meant to say Maulana Kalam Azad’s name.
Damor’s remarks come at a time when nationalism and national security are the top agenda of the BJP in the elections.
Fifty-nine constituencies across six states and the national Capital voted in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha polls on Sunday. The last phase of elections will be held on May 19, and votes will be counted on May 23.
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