Bhartiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh's bold reinterpretation of Mohammed Ali Jinnah--his book on the founder of Pakistan is being launched on Monday--is bound to create controversy in both India and Pakistan.

On the face of it, it would seem futile to reapportion the political blame for the Great Partition of 1947. Yet, the renewed controversy over Jinnah could help us rethink the future of Indo-Pak relations.

No amount of blood-letting and political quibbling will alter our past. But we owe it to ourselves to overcome the many bitter consequences of the Partition. It is in this context that Jinnah's frequent invocation of the 'Monroe Doctrine' is of some interest.

The 'Monroe Doctrine', of course, is about the US foreign policy aspirations in the 19th century, when it sought to minimize the influence of European powers in the Western hemisphere. Jinnah visualized that after Partition, India and Pakistan could declare some kind of a Monroe Doctrine that would prevent the great powers from intervening in post-colonial Subcontinent.

In an interview to a European newspaper in early 1948, Jinnah discussed broadly his idea of how he wanted India and Pakistan to relate to each other and the world. "Our own paramount interests demand that the Dominion

of Pakistan and the Dominion of India should co-ordinate for the purpose of playing their part in international affairs. It is of vital importance to Pakistan and India as independent sovereign states to collaborate in a friendly way to jointly defend their frontiers both on land and sea against any aggression. But this depends entirely on whether Pakistan and India can resolve their own differences," Jinnah said.

... contd.