Published in Daily Times on August 15th, 2019
Thank
you, Narendra Modi, for proving that you are the Muslim-hater we always knew
you were. Thank you for proving that Mr Jinnah and his associates correctly
surmised that in a united India, Muslims would be second-class citizens with no
rights. Thank you for proving that you and your Hindutva followers can never be
trusted, that you ignored Nehru’s promise to the UN to conduct a plebiscite to
determine the state’s future, despite Nehru saying, “If they [Kashmiris] tell
us to walk out, I would have no hesitation in quitting Kashmir”, you did the
very opposite, just to appease those who voted for your party and its twisted
policies.
We know how
rabid Hindutva works, Modi. My father and his friends would pretend to be
Hindus when going by bus from one city to another in your home state of
Gujarat. Even many years before the partition, they were terrified they would
be massacred if spotted and caught by those who subscribed to the violent
philosophy propagated by those who founded the RSS. I’m grateful to your
predecessors for the mass killings in 1947, which convinced my father and other
members of my family to flee to Pakistan.
We knew, of
course, after you presided over the massacre of thousands of Muslims in 2002
that you hate Muslims more than Hitler hated the Jews. We know that as your
followers wrenched open the wombs of pregnant Muslim women and you watched in
glee, you were openly expressing your hatred for the thousand-year Muslim rule
over India. You further provided more proof by not fielding a single Muslim to
contest the UP elections, a state of 200 million where three out of ten people
are Muslims. We also know that you were able to secure a majority in the Lok
Sabha due to your open hatred for Muslims, and your promise to suppress the
freedom movement in the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. How can Indian
Muslims ever forget the popular slogan ‘Vote for BJP if you want to destroy
Muslims’ in the recent general elections, which you won by a vast majority?
You
have now proved that you are worse than we thought, by making Kashmir a colony,
a land where the people are proud of their history of opposing foreign
aggression for four thousand years. Thank you for convincing Indian Muslims
that they will never be able to live like free citizens in India. Thank you for
exposing the true face of Hindutva. The whole world will now see non-Hindus
being expelled from India if they don’t convert to Hinduism, after you get
India declared a Hindu Rashtra.
Thank you for
displaying flagrant contempt for the constitution of your country, which
declares that Article 370 is an indispensable part of it. We know that your
cowering judges in the Supreme Court will take a long time to decide the issue,
by which time the genocide of Muslims will already have taken place.
Thank
you again, Modi, for drawing the attention of the whole world to the hapless
people of Kashmir. If you think you can silence them by imposing curfew and not
allowing them to communicate with the outside world, you’re living in a fool’s
paradise. They have the grit and the determination to fight for many years to
protect their identity, their culture and their land.
You have only
served to alienate the Muslims and liberals of your country, and despite your
best efforts, you have only internationalised the issue. We hope you live long
enough to realise that you have made a terrible mistake.
The writer is
an engineer, a former visiting lecturer at NED Engineering College, an
industrialist, and has been associated with the petroleum, chemical industries
for many years.
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