UP poll and Jinnah's fondness for Air India shares
While Jinnah’s politics would be discussed during the election rallies, there is another side to Jinnah and it would hardly deliberated upon as to why he was a careful and persistent investor in Air India shares and landed estates
Even as traffic moves on from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road in Delhi where the lavish mansion of founder of Pakistan MA Jinnah is there, his ghost has entered in Uttar Pradesh even though the State assembly election is still couple of months away. Surely, Mohammad Ali Jinnah will be a factor in the high-voltage poll in India's most populated state. Thanks to Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav's claim. Yadav had said, "Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Jinnah studied at the same institute and became barristers. They became barristers and they fought for India's freedom. They never backed away from any struggle". As that was not enough, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar said Partition wouldn't have happened in 1947 had Mohammad Ali Jinnah been made the first prime minister of India. Jinnah's ghost would disappear once election in UP would be over.
While Jinnah's politics would be discussed during the election rallies, there is another side to Jinnah and it would hardly deliberated upon as to why he was a careful and persistent investor in Air India shares and landed estates. By March 1947, both the Congress and the Muslim League were agreed that India would be partitioned. Even then he was looking for investment options. Given these circumstances, how then is one to explain Jinnah writing to share brokers and estate agents that very month buying 500 shares in Air India Ltd. As Air India will be transferred to its new owner, the Tata Group, by the end of third week of January 2022, someone should do a research what happened to Jinnah's Air India shares.
And he was also showing keen interest in the purchase of "Sandow Castle", described as "a large property near Bombay with 18 acres of land and with an unrestricted view of the sea". Its price was advertised at Rs 5 lakhs. This startling fact about Jinnah's keen desire to buy Air India's shares is revealed in Jinnah Papers: Pakistan - Struggling for Survival, 1 January - 30 September 1948, Editor-in-Chief Z H Zaidi; Qauid-i-Azam Papers Project, Government of Pakistan; distributed by Oxford University Press, Pakistan. That Jinnah was very money-minded person was also once confirmed by late Mrs Dinesh Nandni Dalmia, noted Hindi novelist and wife of Seth Ramkrishan Dalmia, an industrialist and close friend of Jinnah. She once told this writer in 1992 that Jinnah used to discuss money matters during his meetings with her husband at their Sikandara Road residence in capital. Mrs Dalmia met Jinnah many times especially during those days when Jinnah and her husband were sealing the deal for the sale of Aurangzeb Road mansion. Jinnah sold that mansion to Dalmia before leaving for the country he created for Muslims on 7 August, 1947.
Not only Jinnah, his number two in All India Muslim League, Liaquat Ali Khan had no idea that their dream to have homeland for the Muslims of India will become a reality so soon. All India Muslim League passed the resolution for homeland for the Muslims of India on the 23 March, 1940 at Lahore's Minto Park (now Iqbal Park), they got what they wanted within seven years. It is a very short time to achieve such a huge goal. It goes without saying that if they knew that there demand would be accepted so soon, both of them would not have purchased palatial properties in capital.
In fact, Liaquat Ali Khan, who later became the first prime minister of Pakistan, left behind grand properties in capital and other parts of the country either unsold or selling in pittance. There present valuations would not be less than between Rs 800 to Rs 1000 crores. Jinnah had one house each in the most exclusive areas of both Mumbai (then Bombay) and in New Delhi. While he managed to sold his 10 Aurangzeb Road mansion, here in pittance before going to Pakistan, the house in Malabar Hill in Mumbai remained unsold. This house was designed according to European architecture. Even though his estrange daughter, Dina Wadia claimed that house many times, the Indian government had never accepted her claim.
It is said that considering the prime location where Jinnah house of Mumbai is situated, it is a gold mine. It would be not less than Rs 600 crore in today's context. It is a dream house. Delhi's Jinnah house is little unfortunate in the sense that unlike the Jinnah house of Mumbai, this has never remained in news. It is said that Jinnah started visiting more often than not in this part of the country after 1940 when Muslim League demanded a separate state for the Indian Muslims. He brought Delhi's grand mansion in the later part of 1939, he used to stay either at Hotel Maidens or Imperial Hotel instead of staying with some of his party leaders.
And Aurangzeb Road is not far away from Tilak Marg, In a huge mansion on Tilak Lane, Liaquat Ali Khan used to live with his pretty wife, Gul-e-rana, a teacher of English in IP college of Delhi University. Liaquat Ali Khan had huge properties in both Delhi, Muzzafer Nagar and Karnal. In fact, he belonged to the feudal family of Karnal. He also purchased his house sometime in 1941. Unfortunately, he could not dispose off his house while going to the Pakistan. Later, the Indian government took over the control of his house. And Indian government given that house to Pakistan government to make it the official residence of their Delhi based high-commissioner. Liaquat Ali Khan was killed at a same place in 1951 where Benazir Bhutto was killed. His assassins could never been nabbed.
Interestingly, Liaquat Ali Khan was a Finance Minister in the interim government that was headed by Pt Jawaharlal Nehru in 1946. It had 16 members including, Sardar Patel, Dr Rajinder Prasad and Babu Jagjivan Ram. A scion of a feudal family of Karnal with strong connections with Western UP also, Liaquat Ali Khan presented a budget on 2 February,1946 that imposed a whopping 25 per cent tax on business profits over one lakh rupees, doubled corporate tax, imposed capital gains tax, and doubled export duty on tea. Sardar Patel was outraged, claiming Liaquat Ali Khan was really attacking Hindu businessmen (like GD Birla, Jamnalal Bajaj and Walchand) who had long financed Congress. Some say that was a communal interpretation of a Budget that equally affected Muslim and Parsi industrialists. Liaquat Ali Khan had the power to block any expenditure. He constantly queried and blocked spending proposals of Congress ministers. Sardar Patel is reported to have said that he could not even appoint a peon without Liaquat's approval, which took ages.
Hindu businessmen also feared that Liaquat would selectively target them for tax evasion via the new commission, a fear some Congressmen shared. Liaquat's tactics proved successful. Ultimately, the conduct of Liaquat Ali Khan apparently convinced Patel and Nehru that working with the Muslim League was impossible. It is also said that Nehru and Patel accepted Partition because by conceding Pakistan to Jinnah, they would have no more of him and eliminate his nuisance value. Some still claim that Khan's budget proposal had the blessings of Jinnah.
(The author is a Delhi-based journalist who closely follows South Asia, business, Delhi and Indian Diaspora)
