A qawwali spoof hailing Jaswant Singh's word of praise for Mohd Ali Jinnah is getting popular in Pakistan
A qawwali spoof hailing Jaswant Singh's word of praise for Mohd Ali Jinnah is getting popular in Pakistan
His own party has spurned him like a pariah years after he helped found it.
But, Jaswant Singh's courageous book has earned him quite a few fans across the Line of Control.
The former armyman has been offered a 21-gun salute at Pakistan's Qaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah's mausoleum by a qawaal.
Banke Miyan, a spoof on legendary Pakistani qawwali singer Aziz Miyan, has come out with a qawwali praising Jaswant Singh for risking a "phadda" (enmity) with his own partymen.
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Jaswant Singh has been referred as 'Jassu bhaiya' in the qawwali and hailed for being a fan of Qaid-e-Azam.
Jaswant's expulsion from the party proved a boon for his book 'Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence' that sold like hotcakes. In fact, the publishers got a number of orders from Pakistan and Bangladesh too.
The qawwal in the video rises to his knees in the style of Aziz Miyan.
He is responsible for the longest commercially released Qawwali, Hashr Ke Roz Yeh Poochhunga, which runs slightly over 115 minutes and was originally released on two cassettes.
Radio Fan
Jaswant Singh has got another fan in Pakistan, the Punjabi Durbar programme of Radio Pakistan.
In its latest edition, the Punjabi Durbar programme has described all political parties of India, be it Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress or Shiv Sena, as being anti-Pakistan for voicing objections to Singh's book on Jinnah.
Radio Pakistan said Singh has paid a huge price for his biography of Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
Many Indian scholars have sympathised with Singh, but have taken exception to Pakistan Radio describing all Indian political parties as anti-Pakistan.
Anil Kumar, a historian and a commentator on current affairs, said that political parties in India have tried their best to cultivate good relations with Pakistan ever since Independence. "India has been maintaining friendly relationship with Pakistan since 1947.
It is surprising that broadcasters of Radio Pakistan expect political parties in India to sing praise of Jinnah, who was chiefly responsible for the division of the sub-continent on the basis of religious identities," Kumar said.
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