Sunday, June 5 2005 15:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Karachi: With his remarks praising Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah causing a flutter within the Sangh Parivar, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president L K Advani's aides today (Jun 5, 2005) sought to play down the controversy by releasing copies of the Qaid-E-Azam's speech in which he had favoured creation of a secular state.

"You are free, you are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or any other places of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the state," Jinnah had said in his address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947, according to an excerpt from the book 'Towards Jinnah's Pakistan.'

The excerpts of the speech were made available to the accompanying journalists by Advani's media managers.

"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," Jinnah is quoted as saying in the historic address.

In his remarks in the visitors' book at Jinnah's mausoleum yesterday, the former Deputy Prime Minister had said the Pakistan founder's address was "really a classic, a forceful espousal of a secular state in which while every citizen would be free to pursue his own religion, the state shall not make any distinction between one citizen and another on grounds of faith."

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have termed as "unfortunate" Advani's statements on the Babri Masjid demolition and Jinnah. Reacting to Advani's praise for Jinnah, RSS said yesterday that such remarks were against his ideology.

Meanwhile, an aide said "Advani had only recalled what Jinnah himself had said. Similarly, he had quoted freedom fighter Sarojini Naidu, who had described him as an Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity."

On the strong reactions evoked by Advani's statement that the Ayodhya demolition was the "saddest day of his life," they said, "What is new? He has made similar statements earlier also."

They recalled that while on Babri demolition, he had termed it as "most unfortunate" in the past, he had even termed the Gujarat violence as a "blot."