India’s continuous struggle to disband the much-needed peace talks, the aggression and the struggle to bring agitation and misery on both sides of the border, derived me dig into reasons behind Modi’s un-cooperation and his dire need to further complicate the situation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. This led to the study of historical background and political inclinations of PM of India.
Narendra Modi, born in Gujrat, helped his father sell tea as a child and later ran his own stall. He became a part of Rashtriya Swayamsevek Sang (RSS) that follows an extreme right wing Hindu Ideology, at the age of eight. In 1971 he became a full-time worker for RSS and rose to the position of General Secretary within the party. By 2001 he was appointed as the Chief Minister of Gujarat as a leader of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP). After Modi was sworn into power as the Prime Minister of India in 2014 violent attacks on religious minorities rose more than twenty percent than the previous year. These attacks coincide with a substantial rise in Hindu Nationalism. Eighty percent of India’s population is Hindu, and Modi as PM has granted the Hindu extremist the right to make India a Hindu dominant country and shunning minorities.
The reason for this antagonistic aura is that Modi has not disowned his past, and his lifelong association with RSS is reflected in every aspect of his political decisions. RSS is widely regarded as the parent organisation of the ruling party of India, BJP. It carries the ideals of upholding Hindu culture and unite the Hindu community. Many Indian social scientists have described this organisation as fascist. To justify this extreme characterization, it would be appropriate to explain that not only the founder leaders of RSS admire Adolf Hitler but RSS follows Nazi salutes and Hitler’s Mein Kampf is recommended to be read by the members. This encompasses a broad span of Indian Political movement and also pivots around the idea that Hindu religion should serve as a chaperone for the state and its citizens, and has rather increased condemnation of Hindu inflicted violence against minorities
Narendra Modi wrote a book in 2008 “ Jyotipunj” (translates beam of light) in which he wrote about the lives of sixteen men who have inspired him. All sixteen were members of RSS. One of these inspirations for Modi is Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, who upholds fascist concepts and sectarian version of culture. He strengthened the foundation of minority hate in his 33-years long leadership of RSS as Chief. Golwalkar discusses in his book ‘We: Or Our Nationhood Defined’ by M.S Golwalkar (1939) “in this land Hindus have been the owners, Parsis, Jews the guests and Muslims and Christians the dacoits.”
India is being driven by hatred and held captive to the dogmatic demands of Hindu zealots. In recent past there are more and more incidents of forced Muslim conversion into Hinduism, homes burnt down and people murdered for allegedly consuming beef. Modi’s power has brought the ever more unaccommodating, intolerant and bloodthirsty displays against anyone deviating from the version of Pure Hindustan.
A number of British Lords lambasted the Prime Minister for supporting Hindu extremism. This issue was raised in UK parliament during a debate in March 2016, about declining religious freedom in India under the Modi government. Lord Collins said: “The Foreign and Commonwealth Office seems focused on what it called prosperity interventions in India, but what is being done on human rights since Prime Minister Modi came to power? The prosperity agenda and the lives and fundamental freedoms of people must never be part of a cynical trade-off. You cannot trade human rights with economic trade.”
In 2002, India witnessed a statewide massacre of Muslims in Gujarat under Modi’s watch as CM, at the hands of Hindu mob. Such violent attacks on religious minorities have increased since 2014 according to Catholic Secular Forum. But this hostile stance hasn’t remained in the confines of his country rather it has expanded its vehement nature across the border as well. A continuous fire assaults across line of control from India, Sartaj Aziz’s disregard at the heart of Asia conference, catastrophic attacks in Kashmir, refusal to respond to Pakistan’s offers for dialogue on all outstanding issues to cool tensions and cease hostilities — moreover the threat to defy the Indus Water Treaty to further aggravate the situation, to name a few belligerent incidents of recent past. Indus Water Treaty of 1960 is considered one of the actualisation of water diplomacy, since it survived 1965, ‘71, ‘99 and multitude of tensions after these wars. But after the Uri incident, Prime Minister Modi has made sure to exercise perverse attitude towards Pakistan, regardless of the consequences that it might lead to. It could only be hoped that an external intervention from influential countries would sort this conundrum before Modi’s unyielding approach costs both countries irrecoverable loss.
The writer is the executive editor, Daily Times, and can be reached [email protected]