'Enemy property': India's answer to Trump, wants to raze Pak founder's home

[Green Arrow]

Property magnate and politician Mangal Prabhat Lodha, business partner of Donald Trump, reignites tensions over Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s Mumbai house.


Donald Trump’s alliance with Lodha complicates hopes of the US acting and a meditator between India and Pakistan Photograph:
India
'Enemy property': India's answer to Trump wants to raze Pakistan founder's home
Property magnate and politician Mangal Prabhat Lodha, business partner of Donald Trump, reignites tensions over Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s Mumbai house

Vidhi Doshi in Mumbai
Wednesday 5 April 2017 11.36 BST First published on Wednesday 5 April 2017 04.31 BST

Donald Trump’s Indian business partner is leading a campaign to raze a bungalow in Mumbai that was once the home of Pakistan’s founding father, in a dispute threatening to provoke a diplomatic row between Delhi and Islamabad.

The property was the primary residence of Mohammad Ali Jinnah before he moved to Karachi after partition. It has long been a bone of contention between the two nations.

This week, the property magnate and politician Mangal Prabhat Lodha reignited tensions over the house, describing Jinnah House an “enemy property” and calling for it to be demolished.

Lodha, a multi-billionaire property magnate and owner of Lodha Group, which is building Mumbai’s first Trump Tower, said upkeep of the bungalow was costing the government millions of rupees every year and called for it to be replaced with a cultural centre.

“The Jinnah residence in south Mumbai was the place from where the conspiracy of partition was hatched. Jinnah House is a symbol of the partition. Demolishing the property is the only option,” he said, speaking to the state of Maharashtra’s legislative assembly.

Demolishing Jinnah House would cause a major diplomatic row with Pakistan, which has repeatedly claimed ownership of the building and asked India to allow it to house a consulate in the property.

Pakistan foreign office spokesman Nafees Zakria has said in response to the campaign that the property belonged to Pakistan’s founding father and “ownership rights” must be respected.

In Pakistan, Jinnah is celebrated as a hero for creating a nation for Muslims, where they could enjoy self-determination. In India he is depicted as a weak leader who betrayed Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of a secular India, and whose demands for partition led to the loss of between one and two million lives.

Relations between the two countries have declined in the past year, with India blaming Pakistan for a series of terror attacks on Indian soil and retaliating with night-time raids on Pakistan-based terrorists in the contested territory of Kashmir.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said on Monday that the Trump administration was “concerned about the relationship between India and Pakistan” and “very much wants to see how we de-escalate any sort of conflict going forward”.

Soon after his election victory, Trump called Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, and expressed a desire to strengthen relations. In the surprise phone call, the US president described Pakistan as a “fantastic country” and Pakistanis as “one of the most intelligent people”.

But Trump’s alliance with Lodha complicates hopes of the US acting as a meditator between the two countries, which are still fighting over disputed territory of Kashmir, and of reinstating strong ties with Islamabad.

Lodha still owns a majority stake in the real estate business partnered with the Trump Organisation in Mumbai.

His rise to mogul status in India mirrors Trump’s in the US. Both are known for building glitzy high-rises and golf courses, and both handed over control of their property empires to their sons to pursue political ambitions.

In January, after Trump’s election, Lodha’s political website even carried the slogan “Make Mumbai great again”, echoing Trump’s campaign mantra. The slogan has now been removed.

A member of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata party, Lodha launched his political career in 1994, capitalising on the anti-Muslim sentiment after the Bombay riots of 1992-93 in which Hindus and Muslims clashed after Hindu hardliners demolished an iconic Muslim worship site.

Over the years Lodha has campaigned to imprison Christians and Muslims for converting Hindus, to stop Hindu-Muslim marriages, to lower the volume of the Muslim prayer call in Mumbai, and to demolish a mosque which he argues was illegally constructed.

Capturing anti-Muslim sentiment has also been a keystone of Trump’s political career so far, with verbal attacks against the family of a Muslim-American war veteran and failed efforts to introduce a Muslim travel ban.

For a separate Trump Towers project in Gurgaon, Trump partnered with Lalit Goyal, owner of IREO Realty which was investigated by Indian intelligence authorities for siphoning off funds for the Commonwealth Games through Goyal’s brother-in-law and BJP leader Sudhashnu Mittal. A third Trump Towers project in the western city of Pune is also being investigated for illegally obtaining building permissions.

The White House did not immediately replied to the Guardian’s request for comment.

Source _ The Guardian

@Areesh @Windjammer @HRK @MastanKhan @Horus

 

[Areesh]

Let them demolish it. We should demolish India consulate in Karachi. It is also vacant for years.

 

[Fledgingwings]

Typical Indiot Mentality

 

[RazaGujjar]

Indian mentality has been on full display since Modi took office. The world can finally see india's ugly, racist, hate-filled face.

 

[SQ8]

Jinnah's mumbai is long dead anyway. It's replaced by an increasingly fascist population. The mumbai that Jinnah loved, found the love of his life in, had ideas of Hindu Muslim unity in- is all dead.

This is the hindu reich taking power, there is nothing Pakistan should have to do with India or their affairs.
They are the enemy eternal, bloodthirsty for our people: men women and children all- every one across that border , regardless of race,age,religion or creed.

Their madness will destroy the subcontinent, a far cry from not just the ideals of Islam but Dharm : where no living creature should be harmed.
The nuclear war they are in delusion of winning will leave death and destruction over thousands of miles and millions of lives.

It may even lead to a grave extinction threat to mankind, but that is the fate these pretend Hindu fascists are condemning the world to.

The world is reaching its peak entropy, and the reaction is about to get to its explosive stage

 

[Mangus Ortus Novem]

Nazi's burnt books in kristalnacht and destroyed places of worship.. turned people into sub-humans...

The book of that monster is still sold and read avidly in india. indians admire that stain on humanity more than their own Ghandi...

Writing is on the wall really. Pak must tread carefully and avoid falling into any engineerd provocation.

The trouble with fascism is that it needs to create a permanent state of conflict and enemies to justify its existence.

Religion for love, religion for money and then final stage religion for power.

We are in last stage in india. Even if everyone suddenly stop eating cows they will find a new reason to propel their agenda.

Even when everyone is converted back to Hinduism...they will find some other enemy within... this how it always works. Fascists always have a compelling need to find an enemy and claim victimhood in order to extrat vengence and claim glory of their idealogy.

Mr. Jinnah was an educated, enlightend person. He will be stoned in todays india.

Hopefully, Mr. Jinnah's Pak finds its bearing and deliver on the promise it is!

 

[Spectre]

Jinnah's mumbai is long dead anyway. It's replaced by an increasingly fascist population. The mumbai that Jinnah loved, found the love of his life in, had ideas of Hindu Muslim unity in- is all dead.

This is the hindu reich taking power, there is nothing Pakistan should have to do with India or their affairs.
They are the enemy eternal, bloodthirsty for our people: men women and children all- every one across that border , regardless of race,age,religion or creed.

Their madness will destroy the subcontinent, a far cry from not just the ideals of Islam but Dharm : where no living creature should be harmed.
The nuclear war they are in delusion of winning will leave death and destruction over thousands of miles and millions of lives.

It may even lead to a grave extinction threat to mankind, but that is the fate these pretend Hindu fascists are condemning the world to.

The world is reaching its peak entropy, and the reaction is about to get to its explosive stage

Paranoid much?

 

[Mugwop]

I hope trump can realize from this statement that who wants peace and who wants war! It's obvious isn't it.

 

[El Sidd]

Pakistan needs to ignore this cry baby attitude from India.
Desperate attempt by the Indians to feel relevant but Pakistan has moved on from India and it is only fair if India does the same.

 

[ni8mare]

Paranoid much?

Not paranoid....just being true muslim

Both pak and BD is near void of hindus, in coming years rest will vanish .....but he or like of him don't even bother of it ....ever ask why ??

How many of their local leader has been tried for genocide of hindus ??? is there any pakistanis calling their leader fascist?.....but will keep harping about so called "fascist" modi

No one calling their population fascist....but here we get fascist tag....
because giving answer in their language and method is now makes us fascist .....but exterminating hindu's population is not

This is the hindu reich taking power

not hindu reich ......but hindu Ghori, Aurangzeb ,Ghaznavi.........and yeah deal with it

@MilSpec @Nilgiri

 

[Tshering22]

Let them demolish it. We should demolish India consulate in Karachi. It is also vacant for years.

Is Jinnah House a diplomatic building? No.

Is it located in the national capital? No.

Have Pakistani government asked India to convert it into a full fledged consulate? No.

Then what are you so pissed off about?

You should understand what is the protocol between two countries.

Embassies are always in the national capitals of the country.

Mr Jinnah's house is in Mumbai which is not the political capital of India. It is the financial capital which means it doesn't accord diplomatic status to anyone else except consulates which have to take prior bilateral approval with the other country.

Let them raze the property it would only brings shame for Indian Govt from foreign relations,
Raise this issue at U.N after they demolish Jinnah house and shame them there.

Please tell us how do we hand it over to you without uprooting it from the land.

It is a fixed asset, built on land.

 

[Riz]

banning playing cricket , hocky , banning entry of pak singers , actors, now demolishing Jinnah house , what else they can do ? they really look like loosers , tomorrow maybe they will nuke a self made pak map to amuse there janta ..look we destroyed pak with a russian made brahmos ...lol whata a shameless future shuppa pawa

 

[kasper95]

whats special about Jinnah that Pakistan wants India to hand over his property,there are many properties belonging to Pakistanies in India and Indians in Pakistan,if it pisses Pakistanies then so be it .

 

[Roybot]

Best option is to turn it into a museum dedicated to the horrors of partition, will be fitting because the partition was Mr Jinnah's idea after all.

 

[kasper95]

banning playing cricket , hocky , banning entry of pak singers , actors, now demolishing Jinnah house , what else they can do ? they really look like loosers , tomorrow maybe they will nuke a self made pak map to amuse there janta ..look we destroyed pak with a russian made brahmos ...lol whata a shameless future shuppa pawa

There is nothing special about jinnah house,he is your father of the nation and not ours.