The Pakistan that Muhammad Ali Jinnah desired included wheat and sugarcane fields swaying in the vast Punjab irrigated by five rivers, and rice, sugarcane and jute fields in Bengal irrigated by the waters of the Ganges and Brahmaputra. It included large commercial and industrial cities such as Lahore, Amritsar, Rawpindi and Karachi in Punjab and Calcutta and Dacca in Bengal.
On the strength of Punjab and Bengal, he wanted to feed the poor people of Khyber-Pakhtoon, Balochistan and Sindh. Sardar Patel had caught this weakness of Jinnah and he started talking of partition of Punjab and Bengal to stop the partition of India. His argument was that the Hindus of these states along with the Muslims of Punjab and Bengal could not be handed over to Pakistan.
When Mountbatten met Jinnah, the Viceroy told him that he could not partition India. On this Jinnah said that he will have to do partition. We do not trust them because of what they (Hindus) had done to us in 1938-39. After you are gone, we will be left at the mercy of a few selected Hindus. We will be pressed. Very bad will happen to us.
Mountbatten wanted to assure Jinnah that- 'Nehru and his companions have no intention of doing this. Still, if you want Pakistan, I will have to divide Punjab and Bengal. You cannot take Hindus from Punjab and Bengal to Pakistan.'
Jinnah said- 'You don't understand that Punjab is a nation, Bengal is a nation. A man is Punjabi or Bengali first, Hindu or Muslim later. If you give these states to us, then under no circumstances will you divide them. It will bleed.'
Mountbatten said- 'He is Indian before Hindu-Muslim, Punjabi-Bengali. That's why you are arguing for India to remain one. …..if you had followed the cabinet mission plan, you would have got a lot of autonomous powers. Punjab and Bengal would take care of their own rule. The United States will have more autonomy than the United States. Then you will also be able to enjoy the pleasure of suppressing the minority population in any way you want because you will be able to prevent the Center from interfering. Does this suit you?'
Jinnah said- 'No! I don't want to be a part of India. Being under Hindu state, I would prefer to lose everything.'