Opposition from within

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatia Janata Party are facing a cacophony of voices at home blasting their devious plans to push the country’s minorities, especially Muslims, to the wall.

Eminent politicians, technocrats and former diplomats have spoken out in unison against the patently divisive policies of PM Modi which, they portend, will tear the country’s social fabric to shreds. Starting with the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution, which stripped Kashmir of its autonomy, a measure which was instantly followed by the clamping of curfew in the occupied region, which remains in force till date and which has turned the valley into the largest open-air prison, and culminating in the amendment to the citizenship law in December 2019, New Delhi’s lurch from one disastrous move to another has attracted international opprobrium and sparked violent protests nationwide. While West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee questioned Modi government’s approach to dealing with opponents of its ill-advised decisions, she also revealed that the people are blatantly told to get lost and go to Pakistan.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami aptly remarked that Kashmir has been turned into a graveyard. But a former diplomat went on to count the cost India has begun paying following its calamitous missteps. Shivshankar Menon told a gathering in New Delhi that India faces international isolation over Modi’s push to segregate people and assign citizenship to them on the basis of religion. ‘Global public opinion on India has shifted if you see the international press,’ he remarked. And what he noted about India’s friends is instructive: ‘They are speaking in a dismissive manner about the internal developments in the country’. It’s time New Delhi heeded saner voices from within if it cannot pay attention to those coming from without.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2020.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.