‘Pakistani nation more moderate than Indians’

• Former president says India lost its secular credentials, becomes anti-Muslim state

Former president Pervez Musharraf has pointed out that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is taking anti-Pakistan actions, as he does not want to resolve problems between the two countries.

Although being a bigger economy, India would have to take the first step to resolve the existing problems between the two sides, he said in an interview to an Indian television channel. He also said that anti-Muslim activity was on the rise in India. “India has lost its secular credentials and become anti-Muslim,” he said.

The former president said that the Pakistani nation was more progressive and moderate than Indians, which was why religious parties in the Islamic Republic have never been in a position to form a government, whereas an extremist party like the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power in India.

“You have absolutely lost your secular credentials. You are anti-Muslim. I think the party which has got elected, look at who is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh? I mean, what (are) his credentials,” he asked in reference to the recent appointment of the staunch Hindu nationalist Yogi Adityanath as the political head of India most populous and politically most critical state.

He even goes to the extent of dubbing Yogi Adityanath as an extremist. “He (Adityanath) is talking that all Muslims and Christians will be converted to Hindus within a span of time. He is saying that,” he said. Adityanath’s fledgling tenure has come with a fair slice of controversy both in India and abroad.

Adityanath, a firebrand Hindu nationalist, was appointed Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister in February, but has hogged realms of news reports for spouting anti-Islamic comments. Adityanath’s ascension to the top has vexed the moderates in India who believe that the appointment is likely to sharpen the religious fault lines in the India’s largest state.

The rise of cow vigilante groups and the ban on illegal slaughter houses in the state has escalated and buffeted the right-wing rhetoric in India. Responding to the current atmosphere in India, Musharraf said that definitively that there was an anti-Muslim sentiment sweeping across India.

“Much more is happening in India. We should discuss that too,” he said. To a question, he said the rise of an aggressive form of Hindu nationalism had eroded India’s secular beliefs. Discussing his views on the political situation in Pakistan, he said that a third political power was required in the country.