'Two-nation theory mooted by Savarkar, not Jinnah'

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Thursday sought to rake up a fresh controversy over partition by accusing Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar of being the first person to propound the two-nation theory that resulted in the creation of Pakistan.

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Thursday sought to rake up a fresh controversy over partition by accusing Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar of being the first person to propound the two-nation theory that resulted in the creation of Pakistan.

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"It's a historical fact. Savarkar was the first person to have mooted the idea of a two-nation theory….It was later adopted by Muhammad Ali Jinnah," he said.

He first made the remarks at a book release function at India Islamic Cultural Centre and later repeated these during an interaction with journalists at the Congress headquarters.

The BJP, which along with the Sangh Parivar have always held that Jinnah was the proponent of the two-nation theory, refused to react to the statement. "We don't want to respond to all his comments just because he is looking for political relevance," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Savarkar's followers, however, contend that Sir Muhammad Iqbal, after becoming the Muslim League president in 1930, had for the first time publicly demanded an "independent, sovereign Muslim state".

Singh further said that extreme communal ideologies create a divide. In this context, he said both Savarkar and Jinnah were non-believers.