The Modi government violated the constitution of India by throwing the article 370 giving limited sovereignty to the State of Kashmir on August 5, 2019. I spoke against it on August 12, 2019, at the International Religious Round table. It was done without the people’s consent for dirty politics and levied a total clamp down on the freedom of the people of Kashmir. It was an embarrassment to Indians and Indian Democracy.
The plight of Kashmiri Pundits is a political game for the BJP Party. So they are crying out loud about the expulsion of the Pundits for the power.
Then I debated with Kashmiri Pundit Dr. Mohan Sapru in a Synagogue in the latter part of the year. Dr. Sapru could not answer why BJP is using the Pundits? My questions were simple – yes, the Atankvadis were terrorizing the people of Kashmir, all people, including the Pundits and the Muslims, sparing none.
The dirty politics of Gov. Jagmohan singled out the plight of Kashmiri Pundits and not others. Instead of targeting the handful of terrorists (compared to the population) and bringing the situation under control, Jagmohan chased the Pundits out of Kashmir instead of giving them protection.
The second question is, why did the Vajpayee and Modi Governments not resettle the Pundits? Who can they blame? How long will they fool the Indians that they are fighting for the Pundits?
Everything Modi has touched has gone wrong (the list is long), including the act of targeting the People of Kashmir. He does not listen to anyone but his right-hand man Shah. That is not how democracy works. Modi is just a greedy man for power.
Now, he has called on the representatives of all the Kashmiri people except the Pundits. I hope the Pundits will wake up to the politics of BJP and listen to the invitations to come back from their fellow Kashmiris, who are Muslims. After all, the Kashmiri people have to find solutions themselves.
That reminds me of a joke – A father and son team ran a successful law firm. One day the son comes to the office with a lot of champagne bottles and tells. Dad, it is time to celebrate.
The father asks the reason for such celebration. And the son tells him, remember the case that we have been fighting for the last twenty years? Yes, about it, the father asks. The son gleefully responds, I won that today. The father gets angry and says, Son, you are a fool; you have ruined the very source of income that paid for your college, mortgage payments, and vacations. BJP does not want the solution.
Modi fools the 33% Hindutva (Not moderate Hindus) that beating up on Muslims will bring food to their homes or harassing Christians will earn them clothes for their children. What a ridiculous policy. Bad things never last; after Indians (all Indians) suffer hardships, they will throw the bad guys out, and dharma will be restored to the people of India.
Justice, equity, and fairness are crucial to all political solutions; terrorizing the people will further aggravate the situation. Martin Luther King Jr’s wise words come to my mind that the arc of the moral universe, howsoever long, eventually “bends towards justice.”
Dr. Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker, author, pluralist and interfaith wedding officiant. He offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day to the media and policymakers. Full bio at www.TheGhouseDiary.com