India Ideas Conclave 2015

Promoting extremism

The second “India Ideas Conclave” was held in Goa from the 15^th to 17^th November, 2015. The conclave, hosted by India Foundation, a right wing research centre, focused on the issues, challenges and opportunities of the Indian polity. The theme of this year’s conclave was ‘Learnings From Civilisation’ projecting India Foundation’s belief in understanding contemporary India and its global context through a civilisational lens of a society on the forward move. The India Ideas Conclave 2015 hosted more than 350 intellectuals including Union Ministers, professionals, journalists, politicians and social activists. Conclave 2015 had 60 speakers comprising Governors, Chief Ministers, former Prime Ministers from across the globe, Union Ministers, spiritual gurus and intellectuals. Diverse personalities like Walter Andersen, Tariq Ramadan, Lobsang Sangay, David Frawley, Jaya Jaitly, Tufail Ahmad, Tarek Fatah, RSS Sah Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader Mehmood Madani were invited to add diversity to the debate.

India Foundation was launched in 2014 after BJP came to power and is apparently a bid by rightists to gain more acceptability. In the recent past, Indian intellectuals and artistes, protesting of extremist tendencies by the Modi government, have returned their awards. The prime mover of the conclave is RSS activist Ram Madhav, who is currently the BJP’s National General Secretary.

A fleeting glimpse at some of the topics discussed gives a fair idea of the conclave’s thought process: Kashmiriyat, Jamhuriyat and Insaniyat (Kashmiriyat, democracy and humanity); cultures in conflict: the roads ahead; the new politics; rise of radicalism — future of civilisations; RSS and its cultural agenda, and the pen warriors — literary battles for civilisational ideas.

Holding the conclave may have been a noble thought but the right wing Indian media exploited the occasion to highlight some of the opinions expressed as weapons in its usual stance of “Pakistan-bashing”. Of all the topics discussed, the anti-Pakistan group gleefully picked up the views of Canadian author and columnist Tarek Fatah, who speaking in the session ‘Rise of Radicalism – Future of Civilisations’, launched a tirade against Pakistan. He went on to declare the land of his origin—Pakistan—as being the original “Islamic State” much before ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) came into existence earlier this decade. He declared it a waste of time and utterly useless an activity to engage with Pakistan hoping that it will bring peace and stability in the region or in the world. Mr Fateh fervently urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch an aggressive policy to dismember and dismantle Pakistan, as the current idea of Pakistan was incompatible with modern global ideas of peaceful coexistence. He argued that it was a grave mistake by India to let Pakistan off easily after the crushing defeat in Bangladesh liberation war. India should have gone for total annihilation and liberated even Balochistan back then.

Firing a broadside against the Indian Congress leaders and former Ministers Salman Khurshid and Mani Shankar Aiyer, who recently visited Pakistan and are being labelled as traitors by the right wing Indian media, Tarek Fatah mocked them for believing in “Aman Ki Asha” type of efforts. Mr Fatah’s baseless logic comprised surmising that radical version of Islam, which finds its roots in Wahabi version of Islam, is also about superiority of the Arab race, and that’s why people in Pakistan are increasingly trying to ape the Arabs. Continuing his incoherent assault, he advocated a drastic solution to fight radical Islam – promotion and propagation of the Indian version of Islam – which is so heavily intermingled and married to Hinduism that divorce is not possible.

Indian critics welcome extreme views like those of Tarek Fatah because they emanate from a Muslim and in this case, one of Pakistani origin. Just as Sir Salman Rushdie won accolades for his “Satanic Verses” or Bengali author Taslima Nasreen’s controversial book “Lajja”, which received wide acclaim in the west but was banned in Bangladesh for it condemned anti-Hindu sentiments which came to the fore after the demolition of the Babri Mosque in India.

Serious debate to curb the rise of extremists and bigots who propagate and justify their evil agenda of loot, rape, arson and murder in the name of religion should be welcomed. However, those opinion makers who try and target a specific religion maliciously suggesting that the religion professes violence is malevolent and spiteful. No religion justifies or recommends hatred, violence or aggression. The divide should be bridged through intellectual discourse rather than inciting sentiments through unjust sedition and distorting facts and even quoting religious injunctions out of context.

Interestingly, while the Indian media was blackballing Pakistan echoing Tarek Fatah’s musings, Hindustan Times revealed extracts from Neeraj Kumar’s forthcoming book Dial D for Don. The 1976 batch retired IPS officer of Union Territories cadre presents an account of 11 headline-grabbing investigations he conducted during his nine-year-long stint in the CBI.

India does not miss any opportunity in labelling Pakistan as a terrorist but Neeraj Kumar’s exposé sheds light on part of the funding for 9/11 attacks in the United States having emerged from India. Quoting Harkat-ul-Mujahideen militant Asif Raza Khan whom he had investigated, Kumar asserts that the finance for the 9/11 attack was raised from the kidnapping of business tycoon Partha Pratim Roy Burman, Managing Director of Khadim Shoes, and the earnings were handed over to the chief of the 9/11 attackers, Mohammad Atta by Omar Sheikh.

Omar Saeed Sheikh was released by India in December 1999 as part of a deal in which New Delhi agreed to free a number of militant leaders in exchange for the freedom of hostages on board an India plane hijacked to Kabul. Sheikh was given the money by terrorist Aftab Ansari, who was responsible for the attack on the American Centre in Kolkata that took place in 2002.

While India Ideas Conclave 2015 may be deemed a success by RSS extremists in hitting out at Pakistan through the likes of Tarek Fatah, it would have been prudent to look inwards for incriminating evidence of involvement in international terrorism by India itself.