The statement makes amusing reading considering that the demand for Pakistan was already a powerful movement under Jinnah long before Netaji left India. It is naive to think that one individual could have aborted it.
Also whether India would have been better off without partition is moot. Very, very unlikely. In all likelihood, if partition had been avoided then, it would most likely have happened sooner or later with India losing a lot more.
Whatever happened was for the best. Also one needs to realize that Netaji's popularity soared only after he left India the way he did and formed the INA. As long as he was in India, he did not have the clout Gandhi or other leaders in the Congress had like Patel, Nehru to mention a few. He was also at loggerheads with most Congress leaders and the least with Nehru. These two had shared common ideals.
It is unfortunate that he was not around to participate in the shaping of the country after independence.
AS Omar Khayyam wrote, " the moving finger writes and having writ, moves on"....
