Sunday, September 11 2005 11:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Insisting that India's partition was 'avoidable', Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday (Sept 10, 2005) said it was undertaken although undivided Punjab Sindh and Bengal did not back M A Jinnah's proposal for division of the country.

Senior BJP leader and former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said the undivided Punjab, Sindh and Bengal did not back M A Jinnah's proposal for division of the country and it was a small fraction of population of Uttar Pradesh that supported it.

"Only 15 per cent of total population of UP had given their choice on the issue of partition. Of this, only a small portion favored partition," he said addressing a function in New Delhi to release a book on 'Untold story of India's partition' here.

The book was released by External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh.

Noting that UP was the 'heart' of Jinnah's Muslim League, Singh said although it 'gave birth' to Pakistan, the state remained with India.

On the other hand, he said, the parts of the country which did not favor partition went to Pakistan.

Singh said the partition was 'avoidable' and alleged that 'impatience of those engaged in gaining freedom' from the Britishers was one of the reasons for it.

He sought to fault first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, saying he was not aware about Britishers' plan to divide India or descendence of Cold War.