Narendra Modi: a Hindu Pharaoh of South Asia

Author: Tahir Nazir

Over centuries, many factors have played a fundamental role in both the evolution of human civilisation as well as ensuring the survivability of mankind. Yet, there is no parallel to “visionary leadership” or “great leadership.”

It would not be wrong to say that it is the fundamental invention upon on which all civilisations are built.

Religions, civilisations, nations, and groups depend upon their leaders’ visions. As many as three thousand years of recorded history of mankind are witness to the fact that “messiahs” and “leaders” have turned the tide of history through their “sublime world view; saving the humanity from the sinister edges. Therefore, modern states are indebted to their leaders and their visions; reaping the benefits from their exceptional worldly wisdom.

India and Pakistan are no exception to this phenomenon. Mahatma Gandhi and Mohammad Ali Jinnah are two icons and heroes for the people of both countries. Both struggled against British imperialism and colonialism. Finally, both gentlemen gave independent lands to their masses where they could live peacefully according to their aspirations. Indeed, both nations’ independence and prosperity are linked to their visions.

After independence in 1947, both India and Pakistan took a different path to statehood and faced multifaceted challenges. In this journey, India has been luckier than Pakistan that it had the astute leadership that drove a fragile state safely away from many existential dangers.

To cut the story short, up till now, India has reaped the dividends of Gandhi’s philosophy and the political wisdom of Jawaharlal Nehru but now Indian political arena has taken a dark “paradigm shift;” breaking its foundational pillars of secularism, democracy and pluralism.

Present-Day India is not Gandhi’s or Nehru’s India but Modi’s India. The philosophy of Modi is based upon the radical Hindutva concept that treats other people as “termites” and promotes “lynching” as the ultimate way to purge Muslims from the Hindu land. Since 2014, Hindustan, under Prime Minister Modi’s saffron thumb, has increasingly become a most dangerous place for minorities, especially Muslims.

Hindu extremist Bhartiya Junta Party (BJP) under PM Modi recently attempted to revoke the article 370. which gave a unique and special status to the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) under the Indian Constitution. The new controversial Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019 converted Jammu and Kashmir into a Union Territory (UT) with a state assembly and Ladakh into a UT without an Assembly. Under article 370, people of IOK had their constitution, flag, penal code and a degree of political autonomy except for defence and foreign affairs. However, if talking practically, for the last 60 years, the people of IOK are under Indian military subjugation and colonial rule.

Undoubtedly, the policies of PM Modi are based on the colonial and imperial premise and a complete disregard to humanity, international law, UN charter and, above all, Gandhi’s philosophy. Nobel laureate Dr Amartya Sen aptly described today’s reality of Kashmir. He stated that Modi’s undemocratic move was “the classic colonial excuse (New Delhi took the decision without hearing the voices of Kashmir people and imposed curfew to suppress backlash). That’s how the British ran the country [India] for 200 years.”

Modi’s decision on IOK has backfired and torpedoed India’s diplomatic and democratic credentials internationally

He further said that “India was the first non-Western country to go for democracy…..we lose that reputation on the grounds of action [invalidating the article 370] that have been taken.”

Pakistan political and military leadership firmly made it clear to far-right Modi’s government that changing the status quo in IOK would not yield any geopolitical and strategic leverage to India. Rather, it would further complicate the situation for its hegemonic designs.

Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan reached international leaders and urged the international community to play their due role in resolving the Kashmir conflict. PM Imran fiercely lashed out at PM Modi and compared him to Hitler and his Hindutva ideology to Nazism. He termed the illegal annexation of Kashmir as a step towards Hinduisation of India.

Being the victim of India’s latest move, Beijing criticised India and stated that “China is always opposed to India’s inclusion of the Chinese territory in the western sector of the China-India boundary into its administrative jurisdiction.”

Without naming India, Chinese Ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, stated that parties should “refrain from taking any unilateral action which might further aggravate the dangerous situation.”

In addition, all major international reputable newspapers and TV channels carried lead stories on Kashmir and the plight of Kashmiri people. All human rights bodies, including Amnesty International, condemned India’s military siege and information blackout in the IOK.

There is an increasingly dominant view in the international media that Modi’s decision on IOK has backfired and torpedoed India’s diplomatic and democratic credentials internationally; dimming its prospects for UN Security Council (UNSC) candidature by committing serious human rights violations and UN charter. Furthermore, the informal session of the UNSC on the escalating crisis in IOK added another injury to Modi’s growing imperialism. Many Indian analysts viewed the UNSC discussion on Kashmir issue as a slap on Modi’s face because, for the last 60 years, Indian political establishment had propagated Kashmir as their internal matter. Nevertheless, the Security Council session negated India’s long-held national position and made it clear that Kashmir was and is an international issue.

From a strategic point of view, Modi’s muscular policies (internal and external) will be counterproductive in the long run because they are not tenable and sustainable from any angle be it politically, diplomatically, economically and above all from the security point of view. Modi failed to comprehend the lesson from Indian political history and its predecessor that maintaining a status quo in Kashmir was more favourable, sustainable and beneficial for India’s regional and global ambitions. But Modi put personal and BJP’s interest above than states interest and short himself in the foot by revoking the article 370 of the constitution.

Undoubtedly, Modi has played the most dangerous gambit of his political life. It remains to be seen how history will judge his actions, but one thing is very clear that Modi has buried Gandhi and Nehru’s secular and democratic India. From now onwards, Hindustan will reap the fruits of Modi’s poisonous Hindutva philosophy. All this reminds me of the first line of Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night,” “If music be the food of love then play on.”

The writer is a senior research fellow at the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) University

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