- And the need to unite the entire nation
BJP’s Hindutva ideology aims at making India a purely Hindu country. For this the BJP encourages the use of force against those professing other faiths, particularly Muslims. Prime Minister Imran Khan is right to point out that the BJP’s ideology has similarities with Hitler’s Nazi ideology and the illegal annexation of the only Muslim-majority state in India is reminiscent of Hitler’s “final solution”. Many Indians have disagreed with the BJP’s position, which was again reiterated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech on Thursday, that the removal of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was meant to ensure justice and development to backward sections of society in Kashmir. It has been pointed out that educational and economic indicators in occupied Kashmir are much better than many Indian states. The real purpose behind the revocation of Articles 370 and 35A is to encourage non-Muslims from India to settle in the Valley to turn the Kashmiri Muslims into a minority. As prominent Congress leader P Chidambram has put it, Article 370 would not have been repealed if Kashmir had been a Hindu-majority state.
Cross-border shelling from the Indian side that has killed several during the last few months is yet another expression of the Hindutva aggressiveness. In case the world fails to take note of the annexation of occupied Kashmir, India is likely to be encouraged to launch an attack to occupy the part of Kashmir under Pakistan’s control. As Mr Khan has warned, it would lead to a war. Any war between the two largest countries in South Asia would cause widespread devastation. Pakistan would be forced to withdraw troops from its western borders which would help terrorist networks currently confined to Afghanistan to fan out to other countries.
At this crucial juncture in Pakistan’s history there is a need on the part of the PTI administration to take all political parties on board. The least the government can do is to intervene to release all political leaders who are in NAB custody without having been sentenced by any court. It is the government’s duty to urgently reduce the polarization in the country so that the nation is able to speak with one voice.