Gujarat Govt. in line of fire for sales of RSS ideologue's book

Ahmedabad, Aug 28 (ANI): After Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi banned Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah, the sale of 'The Tragic Story of Partition' written by RSS ideologue H V Seshadri, that has uncomplimentary references to Nehru and Patel, has come under the line of fire.

Sahitya Sadhana Trust, part of the RSS Headquarter, has sold thousands of copies in Gujarat in the last 27 years.

Sadhna publication defends the book terming it as history, as opposed to Jaswant Singh's book, which they claim has more of prejudiced elements.

"Seshadri's point of view is not prejudiced. He has written after taking all the aspects in mind. He has given lot of references at every instance. What Jaswant Singh has written, seems as if it has been written by keeping only one point of view and by keeping only one person in mind and it has more of prejudice and less of history," said Bachubhai Thakkar, editor, Sadhna Publications.

Seshadri's book holds Patel and Nehru responsible for partition, which is what Jaswant Singh has done in his book, 'Jinnah: India, Independence, Partition'.

And since both the books come to the same conclusion, people argued that the Gujarat Government should ban Seshadri's book as well.

"'The Tragic Story of Partition' written by Seshadri, who is an RSS ideologue is actually coming to the conclusion, which is the conclusion of Jaswant Singh's book. So there is no basic difference between these two books. If you ban one book, you should also ban the second book, which was written more than 25 years back," said Hemant Shah, a history professor.

The book 'Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence' has triggered a political storm in the country.

Newspapers quoted Jaswant Singh's book, as saying that Pakistan's founder was 'demonised in India'.

In his book, Jaswant Singh observes that Jinnah, the Quaid-e-Azam, did not create Pakistan, as Congress leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel 'conceded' to the proposals of the colonial British rulers who acted as an ever helpful midwife in the birth of Pakistan. (ANI)