BJP is a party which pays lip service to secularism but has usually treated Muslims like second-class citizens. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
The BJP, despite being India’s second largest party, has never been able to win over minorities in India because of its explicitly Hindu outlook. This is a party which pays lip service to secularism but has usually treated Muslims like second-class citizens. When in power, it was able to gloss over this uglier part of its agenda by giving leadership positions to moderates like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, even as more obviously communal members lurked in the background. Now, however, with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi getting key support in his bid to be the party’s prime ministerial candidate, the BJP’s anti-Muslim nature cannot be hidden. This is a moment of reckoning for the party and should it nominate Modi as its candidate, it will alienate not just the Muslims of India but, should he win, it will also adversely affect relations with Pakistan.
Modi, lest it be forgotten, is associated with the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. The US both refused to grant him a diplomatic visa and cancelled his regular visa for severe violations of religious freedom whereas the UK refused to deal with Modi for 10 years. How a person who is persona non grata in the most powerful country in the world can be expected to serve as prime minister is a question the BJP needs to ponder. Modi has also been subject to judicial inquiries and sting operations by journalists to prove his complicity in the anti-Muslim riots. Despite all this, Modi has continually been re-elected in Gujarat, which is testament only to his political skills and economic growth under his stewardship, and not a waiver for all his actions in inciting the riots.
It remains to be seen how Pakistan’s relations with India will be affected should Modi be elected prime minister. There is every possibility that unless Modi were to curb his more extreme views and rethink his hawkish stance on Pakistan, his election could be a grave setback to the peace process that made considerable progress under the sensible leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 30th, 2013.
COMMENTS (8)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1713246307-0/OIP-(2)1713246307-0-270x192.webp)
_updates1713245447-0/1178596_7858743_Salman-Khan-(2)_updates1713245447-0-270x192.webp)
He is the right person to Deal with a deviant Country like Pakistan
"How a person who is persona non grata in the most powerful country in the world can be expected to serve as prime minister is a question the BJP needs to ponder. "
Unlike Pakistan, USA has no say in selecting who becomes PM of India. Nixon hated Indira Gandhi and yet she was the PM of India for 16 years. As I mentioned earlier the oly barrier to Modi becoming PM is if JDU, TDP etc. withold support. Foreigners opinios will have no bearing on the election results.
India has significantly moved away from the minority / majority complex. Today, most Indians in India think in terms of belonging to India as Indians and not as part of a minority or majority group. Muslims of Gujrat are at the forefront and they voted for Modi overwhelmingly and discarded their past thinking of belonging to a minority group. By repeatedly electing Modi, the muslims of India slap those with flawed thinking in Pakistan, every time they try to portray an inaccurate image of India. Most in Pakistan can never understand this. India still has problems in pockets and it will not be long before the problem ceases to exist as momentum has already picked up. What Modi has done is to make Indians think as belonging to India and not to any particular community or religion.
On Bangladesh, those in West Pakistan had always disliked the bengali speaking, not just for language and culture but also for their different looks. The hatred is much more than political or the aspirations of those in East Pakistan and it had been there ever since 1947. Even if India had not intervened, Bangladesh would have separated, may be a few years later. Uzbeks, Arabs and Tajiks can and have married Pakistani woman because they are feared but can you find any Pakistani muslim woman married to a Bangladeshi muslim man, even before 1973? I have not heard of any Pakistani muslim woman marred to a Bangladeshi muslim man even in UK or USA or elsewhere. Population of Bangladesh was nearly half of the population of both wings of Pakistan. Yet there was nothing in common, except Islam.
How do you think the other minorities in India (and some real significant numbers like Christians and Sikhs and Budhhists) view Modi? The result might surprise you. For too long this appeasement has gone one. Modi puts a brake on that.
Card carrying Modi supporter, Have a nice day
If at all, Modi is kept away from power, it will be because for the last 20+ years India has not had a single party returned with majority and collaborative parties may think twice about collaborating with Modi if a large percentage of their votebank is Muslims. This too not because of anything he has done which is anti-Muslim or the Muslims in Gujarat would not vote for him. In fact he has ensured 10 years of communal violence free rule in Gujarat and even during Gujarat riots (which were started by Muslims - lest you forget), the army had been called in in 2 days but due to the perception that he was slow in calling the army.
The notion that Pakistan's opinion of his stewardship would in any shape way or form affect his becoming PM is strange to say the least.
Note: Pls read sentence in the last line of my previous comment as center. Apologies for the typo.
Most countries are coming around to the fact that Modi is an able administrator, in one of the few states in India to see zero communal violence in the last ten years - the recent Vibrant Gujarat summit saw official representatives from the UK, Germany, Japan, and Russia in a testament to the state's performance under Modi's leadership - how long do think the US can afford to stay away?. No judicial inquiry or sting operation has managed to attach complicity to his alleged role in the riots, which, in case your readers forget, is for 'not calling in the army in time' and not because he led marauding mobs or gave provocative public statements that resulted in any violence; those who were at fault have been booked and will be in jail for a very long time, including some his close colleagues, none of whom he has shielded from the law. A significant percent of Gujarati muslims have voted for Modi even in the recent state elections, where he continues to enjoy almost a 2/3rd majority. The funniest sentence in this editorial (IMHO) is this one - ....it will alienate not just the Muslims of India but, should he win, it will also adversely affect relations with Pakistan. If you honestly believe that he does not care for the opinions of Indian muslims, do you really think that Pakistan will even appear somewhere in the reckoning? This ability to see yourselves as the sentence of the universe has always amazed/ amused me.
Can't disagree with anything here.