Pranab slams attempts to vilify Nehru on Partition

New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) India's Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee has said attempts were being made to vilify Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru in the wake of Jaswant Singh's book on
Mohammad Ali Jinnah and said it was a malicious campaign to
distort history for narrow partisan interests.

He also attacked attempts to make out that Shyama
Prasad Mukherjee, the leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, the
progenitor of the latter day Jana Sangh and Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), and Jinnah had no role in Partition.

Mukherjee made sarcastic references to senior BJP
leader L K Advani's controversial visit to Pakistan in 2005
and Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah and said they should
explain the psychology behind glorifying Jinnah.

"BJP leaders should explain. When Advani will go to
Pakistan, he will discover that Jinnah is secular. Jaswant
Singh suddenly discovered that he was not responsible (for
Partition). He wanted a united India. These are not
historically correct," he told PTI in the first high-level
reaction from Congress party to Singh's book.

"This is mudslinging and vilification. An attempt is
being made to vilify Jawaharlal Nehru by accusing him of being
responsible for the Partition of India.

"This is a malicious campaign completely ignoring the
facts pertaining to the Partition and an attempt to distort
history for narrow partisan interest," Mukherjee said. (More)
PTI