“Muslims should not be treated as different people … consider them your own,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told party workers at a national executive meeting in the southern state of Kerala in 2016.
Five years down the line, he announced on the eve of India’s Independence Day that Aug. 14 will be now observed as “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day” to commemorate the sacrifices of millions who were displaced or who lost their lives during the partition of the subcontinent after the British finally left in 1947, creating a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan.
“Partition’s pains can never be forgotten,” Modi tweeted even as his detractors pointed out his “doublespeak and hypocrisy.”
“He [Modi] offers platitudes while he and the toxic ecosystem he has nurtured do everything to polarize and divide, to spread venom and hate, and to use fear and intimidation as instruments of grabbing power and derailing governance,” opposition lawmaker Jairam Ramesh of the Congress said in a tweet.
Others agreed. “Since 2014 when Modi came to power, I am yet to come across any initiative that unites the citizens. This announcement of the prime minister will only further create distance and the unwanted gap between Hindus and Muslims,” Delhi-based Christian leader A.C. Michael told UCA News.
Vidyarthi Kumar, a political analyst, said talking about partition after 74 years was “a sheer communal ploy.”
Muslim army personnel have fought wars against Pakistan and attained martyrdom. But the tag of partition has remained, especially in northern India
Modi’s rise in Indian politics has been in parallel with increased antagonism toward Muslims in the country. The 2016 statement at a party workers’ meet in Kerala was merely to project a moderate face to the world. After all, Modi is the prime minister of a country that has the third-largest Muslim population in the world.
Despite partition, many Muslims decided to remain in India, placing their faith in India’s age-old civilization strength of maintaining communal amity.
But many Hindus still harbor a serious grouse against Muslims for the division of India. Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its sister organizations championing Hindu identity question the patriotism of Muslims.
It is not without good reason that Muslim League leader E.T. Mohammed Basheer said: “Muslim army personnel have fought wars against Pakistan and attained martyrdom. But the tag of partition has remained, especially in northern India.”
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Muslim bashing has fetched votes for the prime minister and his party in the past. Modi’s anti-Muslim rhetoric since the 2002 riots in Gujarat has endeared himself to the majority’s voters.
Social media posts from supporters and members of the ruling establishment also sought to target what the BJP calls the “Muslim appeasement politics” of opposition parties, particularly Congress.
“Partition is something we cannot forget. While Muslims migrated to Pakistan, we received the heads and bloodstained corpses. The 60-plus years of Nehruvian [referring to India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru] policies was taking India to another partition,” said one post on social media.
This group believes that Hindus are still being victimized in India and minority communities like Muslims and Christians continue to pose a threat to the nation’s unity.
But there could be another reason behind the Indian prime minister’s announcement, which comes against the backdrop of the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and the takeover of the Taliban, raising old specters in the region.
The birth of Pakistan was a result of Islamic fanaticism. Its founders swore by pluralism and secularism but the last 74 years of its existence have been marred by rabid Islamization. Hillary Clinton as US secretary of state accused Pakistan of keeping “snakes” in the backyard. Afghan governments repeatedly slammed Pakistan for backing insurgents. So, Modi was merely reminding the world of the regional complexities, explained a key BJP leader on condition of anonymity.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
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