The year 1906. Jinnah joined the All India Congress. Early in his political career, Jinnah was concerned with achieving independence for a unified India. But, with the changing time, he worried that British oppression would be replaced by Hindu domination, which might marginalised India’s Muslim minority. And keeping this in mind, Jinnah resigned from the Congress in 1919 and shifted his focus to Muslim interests. In late 1930s, Jinnah, who had become leader of the Muslim League, had declared that the partition of India along religious lines was the only way to preserve Muslim political power.

It was Jinnah, who first raised the issue of partition at the Lahore Conference in 1940. He was the first to declare that Hindus and Muslims constituted two distinct peoples, adding that if partition was not achieved the subcontinent would erupt in a civil war.

History will never forget the year 1946. With a response to Jinnah’s call for a demonstration opposing an interim Indian government in which Muslim power would be compromised, one of the biggest communal violences in the Indian history sparked up. The communal violence claimed thousands of innocent lives and paved the way for separation of Indian sub-continent into India and Pakistan.

While, some Political analysts term Jinnah ‘secular,’ others oppose Jinna’s idea of ‘two nation’s theory’ as a ‘vested, narrow and paroqual political interest.’

Well, it is contextual to quote the inaugural speech of Jinnah, the first Governor General of Pakistan .

"You will find that in course of time, Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the state." But his speech failed to strike a chord in the last five decades of Pakistan’s history. Is Pakistan, a secular country? The answer is certainly ‘No.’

On the other hand, Jinnah was the sole person, who has to be blamed for breaking up the country on communal lines.

The history speaks volumes that Jinnah was not a mass leader. Well, he was a leader, who was smart enough to blend politics with religion. But, did not he make a heady cocktail out of that?

And the controversial leader is in news, when Indian opposition leader and BJP president tuned the beguile in his praise. In an act, which was merely ‘unthinkable’ for any leader of the Sangh Parivar, Advani paid homage to Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah at his Mausoleum. He praised Jinnah as a secular leader and described Babri demolition as the saddest day of his life. He also remarked that the partition of his country was an unalterable reality of history. Recalling Jinnah’s address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947, he said, "His address is a forceful espousal of a secular state in which every citizen will be free to pursue his own religion. The state shall make no distinction on grounds of faith. My respectful homage to the great man."

"There are many people who leave an inerasable stamp on history. But there are a few who actually create history. Qaed-E-Azam Mohd Ali Jinnah was one such rare individual," Advani wrote in the visitor’s book at the mausoleum, which he visited with his family amid unprecedented security

Call it the mother of all ironies or equivocalism of a different hue. In a surprising unionism, Advani’s statement was opposed by leaders cutting across party lines and ideologies.

The issue stirred controversy in the RSS and its allied organizations. RSS spokesman, Ram Madhav said, "The basic ideological questions are involved here and it is not possible for the Sangh to compromise on the fundamental ideological questions."

VHP General Secretary Praveen Bhai Togadia dubbed Advani a ‘traitor.’ "That BJP leaders and cadres had been deeply embarrassed by Advani’s remarks and it is time for them to decide who will lead the party," he reacted.

On the other hand, Congress says, it is ironic and astonishing that Advani considers Jinna, a secular person. Talking to reporters, the party spokesperson Abhisekh Singhvi said that the BJP chief must explain to the nation on his new definition of secularism.

"They have to define, what their ideology is," said Sitaram Yechury, CPM Polit Bureau member.

Advani instantly reached to this opposition by filing his resignation. What happened later was anybody’s guess. Advani withdrew his resignation on the request of senior BJP leaders.

But the question, which looms larger now is, why did a party president, who represents the party, which rode to power on the Ayodhya issue praised Jinnah as a secular leader? Was it another attempt to revive party’s fading fortune? Or a straight-from-the-heart statement of a matured leader! Or a sentimental nostalgia!

After the Vajpayee’s legacy, Advani took the baton from Venkaiah Naidu. The veteran BJP Leader was born in Karachi in 1929. He spent his nostalgic school days in St. Patricks of Karachi. A Swayamsevak right from his childhood in Karachi to the Deputy Prime Minister of India to chief of the ‘cadre-based’ Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he traveled a long way. Amidst his vast experience as a senior leader of the party, his recent statement a number of questions, which alienated Advani from the ideological base of the party and the Sang parivar. It seems as if Advaniji is a leader in his own right.