How many of us know that a Jinnah had recently entered the Indian parliament?A few months before the Lok Sabha elections, this elderly man got entry into the Upper House of Indian Parliament--the Rajya Sabha.
The news didn't catch much attention though and just a few papers, mostly in South India, published the news about Mr AA Jinnah, who belongs to Tamil Nadu.
The Union government website doesn't have much information about the MP 'Shri AA Jinnah' though it gives his phone number and address.
Amir Ali Jinnah was candidate of Karunanidhi's Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's DMK and entered the Parliament sometime back, when a seat from Tamil Nadu fell vacant.
The elderly man, who is also a lawyer by profession, was not active in politics either. In fact, it was decades ago that he had actively participated in the movement for rights of Tamil language. Karunanidhi remembered him and sent him to Parliament.
Though there is nothing wrong if someone has a sunrname Jinnah. But it is surely interesting. Sangh Parivar sees red at the mention of the name. There are not much reasons for Indians to like him though there is also a section of Indians who are ambivalent.
MA Jinnah played a role in dividing India and though we are told that he was secular, things didn't remain the same after his death in Pakistan. Still, the surname invites extreme reactions.
Nobody knows it better than LK Advani who fell out of favour with RSS for his speech in Pakistan in which he had termed Jinnah as a secular leader.
I am sure that no other party in India, especially in North India, can think of sending a Jinnah to parliament. Only Kalaignar could do it. And it's not just AA Jinnah. In fact, two Jinnahs had fought the Lok Sabha elections from Chennai.
One of them who contested on 'Amma' Jayalalitha's ticket, lost by a narrow margin. Else we might have seen an AIADMK's Jinnah in Lok Sabha also. So how come so many Jinnahs suddenly appear?
I found that one of them was named Jinnah because he was born in pre-independene era and the father named sons after famous personalities and gave full such names like Abul Kalam Azad etc.