New Delhi: BJP leader LK Advani Sunday
said Pakistan can become a stable nation if it gives space to
its minorities and endorsed a view that the impact of Islamism
on "legislation and political life" of that country was far
stronger than its thin support base there would justify.
"Islamism did not, and does not, have much popular
support in Pakistan, as elections prove whenever they are
held... but its impact on legislation and political life is
far stronger than a thin support base would justify," Advani
wrote in his latest blog quoting the book `Tinderbox` by
journalist MJ Akbar.
Advani said India`s ethos has always been
"assimilative", whereas Pakistan`s has been "exclusivist".
The BJP parliamentary party chairman said the day
Akbar`s book was released, Governor of Pakistan`s Punjab
Salman Taseer was assassinated by his security guard.
Taseer had invited the fanatics` ire because of his
outspoken defence of a Christian woman Aasia Bibi currently
facing the death penalty on charges of blasphemy.
"Had Taseer been in India he would not have died," the
BJP leader quoted Akbar as saying in his short speech at the
launch of the book in which he calls Pakistan a "jelly state".
The BJP leader claimed that the debate in Pakistan
about the role of Islam in its polity began while MA Jinnah
was still alive.
PTI
