M A I N   N E W S

Aiyar clarifies on Jinnah, Savarkar

New Delhi, August 30
Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who is in the eye of a storm on Savarkar, today said that the views of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Veer Savarkar were not different from each other on the two-nation theory.

Clarifying reports on his speech at a function in Mysore yesterday in this regard, he denied claiming that like Jinnah, Savarkar had also advocated division of the country.

“I wish to clarify that I had said nothing of the kind. I had only quoted from Savarkar’s statement at a press conference in Nagpur on August 15, 1943, where he had said: ‘I have no quarrel with Jinnah’s two-nation theory. We, Hindus, are a nation by ourselves and it’s a historical fact that Hindus and Muslims are two nations’,” Mr Aiyar said in a statement here.

The minister said he had drawn “attention to the fact that in this respect the views of Jinnah and Savarkar were not different from each other.”

“My source for the quotation is the Indian Annual Register, 1943, Volume II, page 10,” he added. — PTI