Daily Times

Indian voters have now given their verdict: a majority wants the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the next Indian government under the premiership of Narendra Modi. According to the latest count, the BJP has won 282 of the 543 seats of the Lok Sabha. Along with its allies, it can probably achieve 337 seats, which is a formidable majority. Congress has suffered its worst rout. The most interesting thing to study from now onwards will be how Modi relates to the Indian constitution. The Indian constitution is an outstanding exercise in secular, democratic and progressive constitutionalism. In some senses of the word, its secular-democratic credentials are stronger even than that of many western democracies. By introducing reserved seats for the Dalits and Adivasis in various legislatures, educational institutions and government jobs, it committed itself to affirmative action meant to help a despised section of Hindu society overcome historical disadvantage going back many centuries.
Let me say emphatically that its architects, Dr Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru constituted a remarkable variety of views and philosophies individually but they complemented one another in producing the Indian constitution. This is not to deny that the ideas and values underlying the constitution fermented over a period of more than half a century and the overwhelming majority of the Indian Constituent Assembly had been groomed and seasoned into a vision that upheld inclusive and universal citizenship without any reference to caste or creed. It is a sui generis type of secularism: not one that categorically separates state and religion but one that prescribes equidistance from all religions because South Asia is probably the most religion-intoxicated region of the world and that reality cannot be wished away. Undoubtedly, the long premiership of Nehru was crucial for India in becoming a modernising democracy.
This is not the first time that an organisation and movement rabidly opposed the secular democratic ethos of the constitution: the Rashtiya Swayamsevak Singh (RSS) has had one of its leading figures elected as prime minister. However, Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee was a poet, a man of cultivation and learning and once in power he transformed into a man of peace and worked sincerely to achieve it in relation to Pakistan.
Modi has a very different background and orientation, and even if some official enquiries have not found him directly involved in the infamous carnage of Muslims in 2002, one would be a complete fool not to realise that such investigations can be partial and biased. After all, General Dyer was acquitted by a similar enquiry of the murder of innocent Indians — Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs — at Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919, and George W Bush managed to secure a mandate from the US Congress to attack Iraq in 2003 — a decision described as unlawful by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. However, in the court of history and world conscience, all three are guilty of crimes against humanity. Ironically, the US even imposed a ban on Modi visiting that country.
With regard to democracy, its imperfections and dangers have resulted in notorious outcomes. Plato deplored Athenian democracy for sentencing to death the most learned man of those times, Socrates. Hitler’s ascent to power received a dramatic breakthrough when the Nazis, through democratic elections, became the biggest party in parliament. Israel’s democracy continues to perpetuate the occupation of Palestinian territory, Iran’s Majlis has enacted laws that restored stoning to death of alleged adulterers and the persecution of the Bahai minority. Pakistan’s democracy maintains barbaric laws.
Considered in the light of the above background, one can say that the most interesting thing about Modi is going to be his relationship to the Indian constitution. Will the constitution effectively restrain his neo-fascist proclivities? When in power, will he discard his tainted past and become the prime minister of all Indians or will his anti-Muslim tactics, which partly explain his rise to power, prove too enticing a temptation? These will be issues and problems we all will be watching.
Modi has also built for himself a notorious anti-Pakistan reputation. Ironically, Pakistan rightwing forces are quietly celebrating his triumph. In a bizarre way it vindicates their anti-minority and anti-human rights disposition. That a lawyer defending an individual charged with blasphemy (Rashid Rehman) can be slain or a journalist who is critical of the Taliban (Raza Rumi) escapes an assassination attempt while an elected government is in power speaks volumes about the type of democracy that exists in Pakistan. If now, in India, someone with a comparable past is prime minister, what has happened to Indian secularism and democracy?
I would like to advise India’s future prime minister: do not let your jingoism dictate your foreign policy. Any military adventure will be met with a determined response from Pakistan. I do not say this because of latent ultra-nationalism but as a political scientist who has recently published a book that, among other things, looks at the wars between the two countries. To the ISI and the Pakistani military my plea is: please ensure that another terrorist attack along the lines of the November 26, 2008 outrage in Mumbai does not take place. It will force India to take punitive action. Irresponsible militarism can plunge this region into a nuclear war, which would effectively destroy a region famous as the cradle of some of the earliest civilisations.
Indian democracy has proved that the old order and caste hierarchy are seriously dissipating because a man of very humble origins (class-wise and caste-wise) has been elected to the highest executive office of India. Modi has also built his reputation as a development genius; most Indians voted for him in the hope that economic development would accelerate under his rule. I hope he puts such skills to the service of India and its millions of impoverished masses, including the Muslims. In Pakistan, we should be willing to learn from him; who knows, maybe we can be partners in peace and prosperity. Nothing is written in the stars. I do not believe in miracles. It is we human beings who can change the direction of history and, no doubt, leaders play the pivotal role in such transformations.

The writer is a visiting professor, LUMS, Pakistan, professor emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University, and honorary senior fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Latest publications: Winner of the Best Non-Fiction Book award at the Karachi Literature Festival: The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed, Oxford, 2012; and Pakistan: The Garrison State, Origins, Evolution, Consequences (1947-2011), Oxford, 2013. He can be reached at:billumian@gmail.com