Wednesday, June 15 2005 13:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Nagpur: Accusing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of adopting a "fraudulent ideology" as party president L K Advani has described founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah as secular, former Rajya Sabha member and Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam today (Jun 15, 2005) said Jinnah did not have secular credentials.

"Only historians will tell whether Jinnah was a secular, but we all know he was mainly responsible for dividing the Hindu-Muslims on the caste line during independence and his deeds (misdeeds) were certainly not that of secular credentials," Nirupam, who quit Shiv Sena sometime back and joined Congress, told reporters in Nagpur today.

Ridiculing Advani's stand on Jinnah episode, Nirupam said in no way could Jinnah be termed as secular.

On United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government's announcement of conducting a probe into the sale of Centaur hotel for alleged irregularities in disinvestment by then Minister Arun Shourie, Nirupam claimed his stand has been vindicated. The disinvestment scam is running into thousands of crores of rupees be it VSNL, hotel Centaur, BALCO or ITDC hotels. Chain of ITDC hotels were sold at throwaway prices by Shourie, he alleged.

Taking a pot-shot on Shourie, Nirupam said he (Shourie), has described Comptroller Auditor General's reports as rubbish while as he had written many stories on the basis of CAG findings, he said.

Nirupam was in the city to campaign for Congress candidates for zilla parishad polls in Bhandara and Gondia.