Convert Jinnah House into cultural centre: Mumbai BJP to Amit Shah

The Bharatiya Janata Partys Mumbai unit has urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to convert the historic Jinnah House in Mumbai into a South Asia Centre for Arts amp Culture SACAC a BJP leader said here on WednesdayBJP city chief MP Lodha called on Shah in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum on the demand as part of the Centres plans to auction 9280 evacuee properties belonging to people who opted to settle in Pakistan postPartition in 1947I met Amit Shah ji and requested him to convert the Jinnah House into an SACAC as was decided in 2017 and there is a board put up there to this effect Lodha saidThe Centre had handed over the Jinnah House to the Indian Council for Cultural Relations ICCR a few years agoThe historic Jinnah House located at Malabar Hill was once the Mumbai home of barristercumpolitician Mohammed Ali Jinnah who founded Pakistan became its first GovernorGeneral and is revered as the QuaideAzam by the neighbouring countryAfter Jinnah left India as per historical records he wanted his erstwhile house to be hired out to a small European family or to a refined Indian prince with an expected rent of Rs 3000 per monthHe had conveyed his wishes to the then Bombay Province Governor Sri Prakasa who was deputed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru seeking to know what the Pakistani leader wanted to do with his former property after PartitionHowever postIndependence the Jinnah House along with thousands of others in the country was stamped as an Evacuee Property and was leased out to the British Deputy High Commissioner between 19551982Since then the Jinnah House is lying vacant and awaiting a new occupant for the past four decadesIncidentally when the then Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf visited India for the Agra Summit in 2001 he had proposed to then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to hand it over for use as Pakistans Consulate in Mumbai but nothing moved in this directionLodha has been pursuing the matter with the Centre for many years for a final decision on the Jinnah House built in 1936 on a prime chunk of 250 acres while Jinnahs former home on New Delhis APJ Abdul Kalam Road has been leased out to a foreign embassyThe Jinnah House was linked with several momentous events in the history of Indias Independence It was the venue for the critical talks on Indias Partition in September 1944 between Mahatma Gandhi and Jinnah and in August 1946 Jinnah held another round of talks here with NehruThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever