KOLKATA, June 12: Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday that the controversy over the role of Pakistan’s founding father Mohammed Ali Jinnah in the division of the subcontinent may not help the ongoing peace process between the two nations.

The spat was triggered by India’s Hindu nationalist leader and opposition chief Lal Krishan Advani when, during a visit to Pakistan, he lauded Jinnah as a “great man” and a secular leader.

Hindu hardliners blame Jinnah for the bloody partition of the subcontinent into mainly Hindu India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan at independence in 1947 when more than one million people died.

Mr Advani’s remarks led to a furore in his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) forcing him to resign as party chief last week after returning to India. On Friday, however, he withdrew his resignation.

Mr Mukherjee said Advani’s remarks may not help the ongoing peace process with Pakistan.

“India will not get the full benefit from his (Advani’s) visit to Pakistan to push the peace process,” Mr Mukherjee told reporters in Kolkata.—AFP