Lord Mountbatten should be called Mount Blank: Jaswant

Former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has said the last Viceroy of British India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, should be called "Mount Blank" as he did not do anything to stop the "massacres" that took place in the sub-continent.

"I will not answer questions about Lord Mountbatten as I consider him ‘Mount Blank’," Singh said while responding to a question at a function to mark the launch of his controversial yet popular book 'Jinnah: India-Partition- Independence," at the Country Royal Palm Club in Lahore late last night.

"The Viceroy had the power of law and order but he did not do anything when massacres took place in India. Secondly, Mountbatten deliberately delayed the announcement of the Radcliffe award," he said, giving reasons why he should be called "Mount Blank".

The veteran politician, who was ousted from the BJP following the release of his book on Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, appeared to be very unhappy over the partition and described it as a tragedy.

"In only 37 days, the whole process of partition was finalised while parts of provinces, especially Punjab and Bengal, did not know (till the last minute) in which country they would be included," he said.

India and Pakistan were born from one womb and their births were through cesarean section, Singh said. He retraced his childhood days before and after the independence of India in 1947.

"When I grew up, I realised that the most traumatic event of the 20th century was the partition. The ensuing wounds are still painful and one can see scars on both sides of the boundary," he said, adding that if the neighbours could not be changed then filth should not be thrown at each other.

Singh was of the opinion that India and Pakistan would be devoured by poverty and they should meet this challenge first.

"I urge and plead you to change the infectious climate into a peaceful one, so that the ultimate beneficiaries – the masses – can benefit from it. It is an attempt to do away with a common past so that we do not repeat the same mistakes," he said.