• This refers to ‘Jaswant, not-so original’,. Both the publishers and the author are grateful that the learned scholar Professor C.M. Naim has raised certain issues relating to the end-notes on a few chapters of the book Jinnah-India-Partition-Independence, where the original source has been duly mentioned.

However, the publishers are now examining afresh the points raised by the learned scholar. The issues raised shall be appropriately dealt with and needed rectification, if any, for omissions unknowingly caused shall be carried out.

— R.K. Mehra

Publisher, Rupa & Co

New Delhi

Separate & safe

• Jaithirth Rao has rightly questioned Jaswant Singh on Partition. It appears Singh has ignored the important factor of the destructive potential of religious fundamentalism, with or without Partition. The whole history of the 20th century is one of ethnic cleansings and genocide across the globe, epitomised in the Holocaust during World War II. India’s had her share of largescale communal violence and massacres before and during Partition, but apart from regional riots and killings, it hasn’t been consumed by communal clashes on a catastrophic scale. For that we’ve to be grateful to Partition, without which we might have been fighting continuous civil wars.

— S.K. Chatterji Mumbai

Reality instructions

• Tarun Vijay’s arguments aren’t always based on facts. It’s unkind to Nehru and his associates to call them patriot-bashers. Syama P. Mookerjee was a friend of Nehru and it’s a fact that he supported the partition of Bengal in 1946. It’s also a fact that on the invitation of Gandhi and Nehru, Mookerjee joined the National Government in August 1947. Later, due to differences of opinion regarding the Nehru-Liakat pact of 1950, he resigned from the Central cabinet. Pranab Mukherjee’s remarks therefore were correct. Vijay has also wrongly painted the Congress as a silent spectator to the Hindu plight during Partition violence. Almost everyone is praising Jinnah at the moment, and the BJP must be attempting a shortcut to a pro-minority tag. We should accept that India and Pakistan are two separate nations.

... contd.