Jinnah House back in news

TNN & Agencies / Sep 24, 2005, 22:52 IST

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Pakistan has raised objections to the structural changes made inside the Jinnah House in Mumbai.

MUMBAI\ISLAMABAD: Mohammed Ali Jinnah is back in the news. Once again, it��s because of his house, that old bone of contention between India and Pakistan.
Pakistan has conveyed its concern over alleged structural changes inside Jinnah House, an elegant bungalow on Malabar Hill whose construction was supervised down to the smallest detail by the fastidious leader.
On Friday, foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan told the Pakistani cabinet that India had been apprised of Islamabad��s concern about the structural changes in the interior.
But the Indian Council For Cultural Relations (ICCR), in whose care the house was placed two years ago, denied any changes. "There is no decision yet to make structural changes to Jinnah House. ICCR looks after the day-to-day maintenance of the house. It does not take decisions regarding constructions. Any such decisions will be taken by the Union. ICCR does not have information on whether structural changes are to be made to Jinnah House. The ministry of external affairs will comment on the issue," an ICCR official in Mumbai said.

Mumbai municipal commissioner Johny Joseph said he had not received any proposal regarding construction in Jinnah House.
Pakistani newspaper The Daily Times reported in its Saturday edition, 'The US $15 million mansion continues to languish amidst rival claims by the Indian and Pakistani governments, Jinnah��s New York-based daughter Dina Wadia and his grandson, the Indian industrialist Nusli Wadia.'
A political hot potato, the bungalow set in now overgrown terraced gardens has been cordoned off for more than two decades. Two years ago, the Indian government announced that it would use the space for a SAARC cultural centre, a project in which India, Pakistan and other subcontinental nations would be represented.

Pakistan has made repeated requests to acquire the bungalow for its Mumbai consulate, requests that India has successfully stonewalled. During the last meeting between foreign ministers Natwar Singh and Khurshid Kasuri, Pakistan was asked to choose an alternative site for its Mumbai offices, Kasuri said.
According to Indian officials, Pakistan has formally agreed to construct its consulate on property offered by the Maharashtra government.
A result of the remarkable rise in neighbourliness in recent times is the professed aim of both governments to open consulates in Karachi and Mumbai by the end of this year. Both consulates were shut, acrimoniously, in 1994.
In 1955, Jinnah House was declared evacuee property and taken over by the rehabilitation ministry. Nehru had suggested that it be gifted to Pakistan as a memorial but the magnanimity did not find many supporters. Jinnah had once said that his house was "fit only for a small European family or a refined Indian prince".
For many years, until 1982, it was the residence of the British deputy high commissioner. After this it passed into the hands of the central public works department, which suggested that a high-rise be constructed in its place for its employees. The plan was given a decent burial.

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