New Delhi, March 15: Congress member Rajeev Shukla today echoed the views of BJP leader L K Advani as he contended that Pakistan founder M A Jinnah was never against the minorities and did not favour ‘one-community’ nation.
Participating in a debate in the Rajya Sabha on Working of the Minority Affairs Ministry, Shukla said that rejection of minorities in Pakistan, in contrast to the thinking of Jinnah, was the main reason behind the country’s backwardness.
“Why is Pakistan wounded today? The country is now called a ‘tinderbox’… Because, it failed to consider its minorities as a national asset and chose only one community. This, however, was not Jinnah’s thinking,” he said.
This statement reflected the sentiments expressed by Advani when he visited Pakistan in 2005.
—PTI