Daily Times

A few days after taking oath as Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan in his tweet had offered olive branch to Modi, and invited India for a dialogue on all conflicts for normalizing relations between the two countries. Mr. Khan stood for reconciliation and good-neighborly relations with the countries of the region. Pakistan’s decision to release Indian pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was reflective of Khan’s vision, which was appreciated by almost all countries of the world. Whereas Imran Khan was receptive to the mediation offer by the US President Donald Trump, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had gone berserk after latter’s offer to mediate the 71-year-old Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India, Indian government rejected the offer and insisted that it would not accept any third-party mediation on its disputes with Pakistan.

It was perhaps his knee-jerk reaction that Modi government revoked Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian Constitution that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. According to a provision in Article 370, “Parliament needs the Jammu & Kashmir government’s approval for applying laws in the state – except in cases of defence, foreign affairs, finance, and communications. The law of citizenship vis-a-vis ownership of property, and fundamental rights of the residents of Jammu & Kashmir was different from the residents living in rest of India. Under Article 370, citizens from other states could not buy property in Jammu & Kashmir. Scrapping the said article was a strategic blunder by Narendra Modi, as the Kashmir dispute has been internationalized. UN Secretary General, Amnesty International and human rights organizations expressed concern on the situation in Kashmir.

Anyhow, Modi continued with his racist policy, as the final Assam citizens list was released in August 2019, leaving out more than 1.9 million Muslims that were living in India generations after generations. Even BJP leaders in Assam criticized its government and consider the Register for citizens as discriminatory. After the abolition of Article 370 of the Constitution, 10 other states enjoying special category distrust the Indian government. The special category status was granted to them by the National Development Council on the recommendations of the Planning Commission to states that needed special consideration. However, Modi is on collision course, which is obvious from situation in Assam. As regards Jammu and Kashmir, Article 370 was the result of an agreement between Sheikh Abdullah and Jawaharlal Nehru, and now even National Conference considers its revocation as violation of the agreement.

Last month, Imran Khan addressed United Nations General Assembly, and he exposed India for barbarism of its forces in IOK. It was emblematic of his vision that he categorically stated the other day that no one would be allowed to cross the LoC, which has been appreciated by the US President Donald Trump and many others. He will of course dwell at length at the situation in Kashmir whereby a human tragedy is in the making due to lockdown in Kashmir. India today stands exposed, as the threat to religious minorities by fanatic and aggressive Hindu fundamentalism is enough to raise serious doubts among the international community regarding the secular outlook and democratic claims of India. The plight of Indian minorities during BJP’s era and especially with Modi at the helm has surpassed all previous records.

Narendra Modi was banned by the State Department for entering the US and revoked his visa in 2005 over his role in deadly riots in Gujarat. For 12 years, Canada had denied him visa, as Ottawa justified the ban by relying on a provision in Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that bars human rights abusers

His policies are being dictated by RSS whose members have unleashed reign of terror on Indian minorities; and the government still wanted others to believe India as a secular state. India’s democracy was conceived of as secular with a civic form of citizenship by the Congress leaders, especially Jaharlal Nehru. During the last two years, many Muslims were attacked and some of them lynched by Hindu nationalists in the name of cow protection, but PM Modi did nothing to protect them. Since the country’s underperforming economy and the BJP government’s failure in improving the lives of its citizens, the country has its highest unemployment rate in 45 years. Modi is therefore on collision course and trying to divert attention of the people from his failures domestically.

Narendra Modi was banned by the State Department for entering the US and revoked his visa in 2005 over his role in deadly riots in Gujarat. For 12 years, Canada had denied him visa, as Ottawa justified the ban by relying on a provision in Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that bars human rights abusers. For more than twelve years, Narendra Modi was unwelcome in Canada and several other western countries including the US. However, principled stand was abandoned for the sake of economic interests and business considerations. Emboldened by the apathy of international community, Narendra Modi continues with repression on minorities, and his hegemonic designs in the region are no secret. Since his coming to power in 2014, violations at the LoC increased manifold.

During 2014 elections, even section of Indian media had stated that the Hindutva candidate, Narendra Modi was confident of his victory, adding “Modi is a religious fanatic and he wants to create a Hindu Rashtra based nation”. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), whose founders idealized both fascism and Nazism, and see controversial figures like Hitler and Mussolini as its role models, is the ideological mentor to BJP – the ruling party of India. Under its rule, attacks on religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians have grown. Imran Khan rightly highlighted the racism of RSS comparing it with Nazism. “Hitler was great, said “Hindu Hitler” on rediff.com, a popular Indian web portal”. How the US, West and Israel can digest anti-semitism?

The writer is a freelancer