While Jaswant Singh’s book on Muhammed Ali Jinnah continues to be the focus of raging political debate, the Mumbai Police has now decided to give its constabulary and officers a peak into exactly what the fuss is all about.

A copy of Singh’s controversial work Jinnah: India-Partition Independence has found its way into a collection of books recently procured by the Mumbai Police as the beginning of an ambitious new lending library for the 44,000 strong force. The book was chosen as it was “in the news”, and so that policemen who were interested in learning more about the issue could have access to it.

“We have bought a copy of Jaswant Singh’s book on Jinnah as part of the collection we are putting together for this new initiative. The book is in the news and is the subject of an ongoing controversy. Our men should have the opportunity to read the book and be in the know about the whole issue. All such topical books will be bought from time to time for our policemen. While it is finally up to them to the men to make use of this opportunity, it is our job to provide them such a resource,” Mumbai Police Commissioner D Sivanandhan told The Indian Express.

The new project is the brainchild of the city police chief, who is also credited with having started a library for the Thane police during his tenure as commissioner there. While around 45 books have recently been bought by the Mumbai Police, the aim is to constantly expand the library to several thousand books.

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