I found him a hopeless romantic. He appeared lost in his journey. It was the longest he said. It seduced him like the spring; thrilled him like summer; and sated him like autumn. He knew the book, like winter, would kill him politically.

That steamy morning in the spring of 2007 at his New Delhi official residence which he occupied as leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, I felt he wanted to give me a scoop on Jinnah. His heart chafed because his secret if revealed would burn a hole in nationalistic India. The Dan Brown of India was penning his very own Da Vinci Code and had discovered the Holy Grail proving that Jinnah was not the demon many in his own party, the BJP, and Congress would have Indians believe.

'The book is in the quarter-finals and should come out in the next six months,' he said while showing me the red markings he had made by hand on the typed manuscript 'tentatively' entitled Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity to the Quaid-i-Azam of Pakistan — The Journey.

It was to take Jaswant Singh another two years before he could come out with his bombshell that he renamed as Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence. Today, the prince from Rajasthan has provoked the gods of nationalism and Hindutva who openly hate Pakistan and Muslims everywhere. These drumbeating zealots whom Singh calls the ‘Ku Klux Klan (KKK)’ have thrown him and his book out of the door.

'Sahil pay baite baite hi manjdhar ki batain karte hain … I can’t be a bystander, I’ve to be in the midstream of that emotion (re-living partition). It’s very difficult and you don’t always succeed, so I suffer that agony,' said Singh as I pushed my tape recorder before him and began by asking why at age 69, did he feel the need to resurrect Jinnah?
'I was unable to convince myself that Jinnah was a demon . I was also unable to convince myself of the ideography of Jinnah as some in Pakistan believe. He was neither. He was a man of flesh and blood. I am not able to understand emotionally why there was partition,' he said.

'It’s a journey of such fascinating dimensions and I find it incredible that this awesome event of mid-20th century has not received sufficient attention. …Sometimes I feel it’s utter poverty of our sensibility,' he told me.

Another reason for his solo quest to demystify Jinnah is his personal friendship with the Quaid’s daughter Dina Wadia and her only son Nusli. 'I was struck by the fact that both mother and son continue to stay in India.' Jaswant Singh was purifying Jinnah. He appeared holding a communion with himself, a kind of self-realisation (albeit belated) of his own life and politics of hate against Pakistan while he served as India’s foreign minister.

Singh said he couldn’t 'forsake' his responsibilities as a BJP top gun. 'But if I cannot deal with them with a sense of commitment and responsibility, then I must shed them (well, the BJP has shed him!) Still, I can’t be a politician of 24 hours of political machinations… There’s so much else in life and books are my companions.' Indeed, his small study is dwarfed with books, paintings and music.

He 'hated to admit it,' but until now, no man or woman, in either India or Pakistan in public life has taken on the task of dissecting the reasons for partition. It was sadder still that no Indian had ever 'devoted himself to the study or writing of a political biography of Jinnah. Being aware of my many limitations as an author, it was with great trepidation that I have entered this territory.' Singh has no formal education as he left school at 15 to enter the army as a cadet where he was commissioned at age 19.

Was Jaswant Singh enjoying the challenge of discovering Jinnah as yet undiscovered in his opinion?

'In the realm of historiography, how do you recount?' he asked quoting the father of history Herodotus who 'goes into analytical examination as does the great Arab Ibn Khaldun … but I’m not that.' So he came to the conclusion that if 'I have to write as somebody who is active in India’s public life, I have to travel that road myself. I must live those emotions. I can’t be a bystander and comment… But do please ask whatever you wish, though I have no hope of Dawn ever publishing this interview,' Jaswant Singh reminded me for the fourth time!

Dawn Magazine printed everything Jaswant Singh said in the April 2007 interview. He acknowledged Dr Zaidi of Jinnah papers’ help as 'invaluable.' He scoured 'volumes and volumes' on Jinnah, including the oral history that was available at the Jawarharlal Nehru Library: 'But it’s not very reliable. One can overdo the information feed and get the system overloaded and I don’t want to fall into that trap.' He met Ayesha Jalal who had done 'magisterial' work on Jinnah as the sole spokesman (for an independent Pakistan), but 'I have not discussed my book with her.'

Jaswant Singh gave me the first scoop on Jinnah two years before his book came out. He even posted the interview on his website. So why the hullabaloo now from the BJP eggheads who think that one of their own has betrayed them?

Here’s another detail the handsome prince shared with me with that certain smile: 'I am often accused of two great extravagances — an exuberant unending purchase of books and too much preoccupation with good wine and whiskey.'

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