Patna in sync with ‘Djinn’ of Jinnah

Parliamentarian Jaswant Singh’s hugely controversial book Jinnah—India, Partition, Independence, is generating as much heat in Patna as across the country.

Singh, incidentally, has lavished praise on the Quaid-e-Azam terming him a complete ‘secularist’, which is at odds with his party’s thinking. It only earned him an expulsion.

City bookstores, which had stocked up on the controversial book, are now running short of it. “The demand is so pressing that we are at our wit’s end. We had ordered 20 copies directly from the publishers of which 15 had already been booked in advance. The day we placed it on our shelves, all 15 turned up for their copies. The rest were snapped up in quick time”, said Ashok Kumar of the Nala Road-located Magazine Corner.

Books-n-Emee, located on the busy Boring Road had taken advance orders for 30 copies. And a few more copies of it for across-the-counter sales. Surprise, surprise! “Those who had paid advance money for the book—Rs 595 for it’s Hindi version and Rs 695 for the English one—seemed glued to their phones, calling us up every day to find out whether their copies had arrived. Once it did, they came in a rush to claim. “Some 20 buyers call on us every day enquiring when the book could be had. We have sent in a request to the Rupa publishers, for more copies. But so far, they have not got back to us,” said its proprietor AN Das.

Vijay Singh of the Reader’s Corner, another popular bookstore, said: "I could guess that the book was a seller. I had ordered for ten copies and all have been sold out."

Novelty Book Company’s Rohit Jha had placed orders for the book for only those customers he knew instinctively would go for it. “My hunch paid off. I have placed orders for another 20 ,” he added.

Tricel, another popular bookshop has already sold ten copies of the book. A dozen more copies are due any time said its sales representative.