By Syed Atiq ul Hassan;
The root cause of the partition of India and creation of Pakistan was the continuous denial of the rights of the Indian Muslims by some extremist elements existing in the then Congress. When those elements’ thoughts dominated congress, Mohammed Ali Jinnah left Congress and became the President of United Indian Muslim League that in result of failures of all negotiations with Congress on Muslims’ rights led to the movement of a separate state of Muslims that is now Pakistan.
The creation of Pakistan costed 2 million human lives, among them how many Muslims, Sikhs or Hindus no one exactly knows. The creation of Pakistan should have been an everlasting lesson for the political leadership of India that India can only secure its geographical and philosophical boundaries until it remains a secular state with equal rights for the people of every religion, sect, race or colour. But now, it looks like, after almost 70 years, those elements who were responsible for the division of India are gaining domination in Indian ruling politics. A man who came to know in the world by his massacre of Muslims in Gujrat, is proving himself in a position to implementing the manifesto of his old associates of RSS.
The world has not seen in any non-Muslim country such an extreme humiliation of faith that a Muslim has been forced to break his fast, a Muslim has been tortured to death because he was eating beef or a foreign sports players and artists receiving death threats because they are Muslims. Certainly, one cannot prove that these acts are not directly commanded by Narendra Modi yet he is the Prime Minister of India, and being a Prime Minister he should be accountable of all ongoing calamities happening in India on the name of religion.
Mr. Narendra Modi has betrayed his voters. The ordinary people of India voted BJP under Modi’s leadership because the poor Indians were looking for the economic development in Gujrat and Modi promised them to make entire India like Gujrat. Unfortunately, rather than committed to his promises and for the greater interest of India he should focus on developing India’s infrastructure, reducing bureaucracy, increase foreign investment, and create better conditions in health, education and jobs, he broke all his promises, and now evidently he is working on the manifesto of Shiv Sena. In result, he has brought worldwide shame for the people of India.
Mr. Narendra and his extremist elements are not realising that the brutal images of beating and killing of ordinary Muslims are touching the hearts and minds of not only fellow Indians but millions of Muslims in the neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and even in the Middle East where millions of non-Muslims Indians are working.
No doubt, the members of civil society, media personalities, artists, and intellectuals are loudly condemning these incidents and the actions of RSS in India and some prominent Muslims and other faiths personalities even returned their medals and awards in protest. Yet, it looks like these kinds and appreciative actions will not stop the extremely dangerous members of RSS as Hindu extremists are backed by the powerful elements of Mr. Modi running the government. The Peace loving Indians who want to see India remain a united secular country are raising their voices against the dumb ears of Narendra Modi and his companion ruling the country but Modi and his hardliners in BJP and old mates in Shiv Sena want India to be a Hindu State from a secular country. How they are going to make secular India to a Hindu India no one knows, but one thing is very clear from ongoing aggression and violence against Muslims that Hindu extremists want to use all sorts of violence and brutality against Muslims. They want to forcibly convert Muslims to Hindu. Today, the thoughts and actions of Narendra Modi reminding Indian Muslims the demand of Pakistan.
Maintaining law & order situation and provide freedom for religious practices are the responsibility of the government and being a Prime Minister of India, Mr. Modi is the head of the government. Therefore, he will have to change his behaviour and act like a Prime Minister of a secular state not like a loyal believer of RSS. Prime Minister of any country is like a father of a family for whom all children doesn’t matter tall, short, black or white, girl or boy are same. Therefore, Mr. Modi has to behave like a father. Furthermore, he has to understand that on both, east and west, sides of the Indian borders there are two Muslim nations Pakistan and Bangladesh and the sentiments of the people of both countries are as same as of the people in India. Therefore, any attempt to force the people of other faiths to convert to Hindu faith will result catastrophe all over India, and that will expand like a fire in a jungle that will cross the boundaries of India to Pakistan and Bangladesh. Therefore, whatever is happening in India against Muslims right now is a very dangerous game for the entire region. It will destabilise the entire region and could invoke the war between two nuclear states of Pakistan and India.
Prime Minister Modi must learn lessons from religious extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan which cost Pakistan thousands of lives, economic disaster and instability of the state. Pakistan after 15 years of bloody fight against terrorism, bomb blasts, target killings is now coming out by paying huge cost of lives, money and social stability.
The fact of the matter is that India has a different demographics than Pakistan or Bangladesh as Muslims, Christians and Sikhs being minorities are in a quite significant volumes of the entire population in India and they live side by side, there is no any geographical division on the basis of faith and culture. Actually, it was a great opportunity people of India had given to Narendra Modi that even having a contentious history Muslims massacre in Gujrat, the people of India gave him a chance to clean himself from his past deeds and work for creating harmony and understanding between Muslims and Hindus being the head of the state but he has proved himself incapable of holding such a high calibre role of a Prime Minister of such a huge country of many faiths, cultures and race. Nevertheless, there is at least one good aspect of all these calamities that Narendra Modi has been exposed not only in India but internationally and it is very hard for him now to re-establish his reputation as a Prime of a secular country.
Now, it is very important for the patriotic Indians that for sake of united India and Indian image worldwide that they should come-out from religious and cultural difference and condemn openly Mr. Modi and his support to Shiv Sena, at the same time, they should demonstrate moral support and harmony with their fellow Muslim Indians. (The writer is a Sydney based journalist and a political analyst, his email is shassan@tribune-intl.com ).
