HVK Archives: Jinnah film stokes fire again
Jinnah film stokes fire again - The Hindustan Times
Vijay Dutta
()
12 February 1997
Title : Jinnah film stokes fire again Bid to denigrate India by defaming Nehru
Author : Vijay Dutta
Publication : The Hindustan Times
Date : February 12, 1997
An overt and pernicious attempt is obviously being made to
denigrate India and drag down its stature internationally by
attacking and defaming Jawaharlal Nehru in a film on Mohammed Ali
Jinnah. The shooting of the film is slated to start in a few weeks
under the supervision of Prof Akbar Ahmed, a former Pakistan Civil
Service member, but now based in Cambridge for the last few years.
Gandhi can hardly be touched because of the reverence for him all
over the world, and also because attacking Nehru would serve the
interest of India-baiters better. It was, after all, Nehru who set
the country's foreign policy and secured its democratic roots. The
initial reports about the manuscript and slant of the proposed
documentary on Qai de Azam Jinnah had kicked off a fierce row last
year with many British historians humping into the fray.
Tempers are again getting short-fuse. Last year, reports had
indicated that in the first shot the camera would pan on clothes
strewn on the floor and then show Jawaharlal Nehru and Edwina
Mountbatten lying on a bed. The author was alleged to aim at
proving that Pakistan was short-charged and not given its due by
Lord Mountbatten because of the intimacy of his wife, with Nehru.
Jinnah, it was said, would be shown as a genuine secular person and
a gengleman to boot.
As an example, an incident was reportedly to be narrated where in a
bunch of love letters between Nehru and Edwina, when brought by a
subordinate to Jinnah, were locked up in a safe by him instead of
being given to the media, as suggested by the bearer of the
letters. Allan Campbell Johnson, who was the Press adviser of
Mountbatten and has written a book detailing the transfer of power
and the negotiations that preceded it had told this correspondent
that there was no question of any physical intimacy between Nehru
and Edwina. He pointed out that a cuckolded Mountbatten was hardly
likely to favour India because of Nehru, the alleged seducer of
Edwina.
More dirt was, however, kicked up when another rather young
Cambridge historian, Andrew Roberts, wrote a column praising
Ahmed's efforts to show the secular credentials of Jinnah.
Incidentally, Ahmed had claimed that Mountbatten was the Britain's
first Pak-basher, while Roberts devoted a large number of pages in
his book 'The Churchillian's debunking him. They have aimed to
portray Jinnah as a re-born religious hero. In the column, Roberts
went on to allege that India was the aggressor in Kashmir. Had
reaction followed and Roberts was alleged to be a right-winger who
disliked Mountbatten for they felt that he presided over the
liquidation of the Empire. Whatever it be, the allegation of
aggression against India bolstered the belief that many at
Cambridge had been briefed by Ahmed, and that a wrong perspective
and distortion of historical facts was taking place. The Jinnah
film apparently aimed more at projecting the Pak view of the
geo-political situation.
Ahmed has now stated in the Sunday Telegraph that "Edwina and
Nehru's was a very cosy relationship. They went for long walks, had
dinners... When she died she had Nehru's letter on her bedside
table...." He has conceded that some British historians would get
very angry seeing the film. Naturally they would. Philip Ziegler,
the official biographer of Mountbatten, has denied that Nehru and
Edwina had sexual relations. He also denied that Mountbatten was
bisexual. Others, have refuted the suggestion of their intimacy.
Christopher Beaumont, private secretary to Lord Radcliffe, was said
to be "baffled" by such innuendoes. Only recently, Charles Wheeler
has decried the suggestions by Stanley Wolpert in his book, Nehru:
Tryst With Destiny. But Ahmed is "convinced" after he heard
descriptions from people "who had seen the two in a clinch".
All indications are then that the two-million-pound-budget film
would try to destroy the character of two dead persons while
conveying that Mountbatten hurt the interest of Pakistan. The film,
is reputedly being bought by Channel Four, which had also telecast
a highly despicable and derogatory appraisal of Mother Teresa. The
consequences of such a blatant attempt to tarnish Nehru, the maker
of modern India, could flare up another fierce controvery, fanned
by the Pak media. The News, the Pak newspaper, has immediately gone
ahead accusing the British media at attempting to raise a
controvery and provoke hostility towards the film. It also claims
that while speaking to the paper Ahmed said that the "clinch" story
came actually from M. J. Akbar. He denied that the question of
Mounbatten's sexual orientation was going to be any part of the
film, although along with the denial he went on to add a few more
salacious details of the liaison between Nehru and Edwina in
Wolpet's book.
It is strange that the film which could damage Indo-Pak relations
is still slanted in the manner which many felt would be to the
liking of Benazir Bhutto. But now she is no longer the Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif has shown an inclination to improve relations
between the two countries. Do the right-wingers, some of whom were
great admirers of apartheid in South Africa, still grudge the loss
of the brightest jewel in the former crown?
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