Imran Khan is right

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is not altogether out of place when he said that there might be a better chance of peace talks with India if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wins the general election polling for which began on Thursday. Hindu nationalism is the fundamental plank of Modi and his party BJP’s election campaign. An atmosphere of sorts has been created all across the country by the BJP leaders and cadres where elections are seen as crucial to Hindu existence and assertiveness. “Pakistan and Musalman” are the main targets of all this new wave of Hindu bravado. Only the other day, Amit Shah, the BJP president said that the party’s new government at the Centre would implement National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country and would scrap Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. Addressing an election rally at Kalimpong in Darjeeling district, Shah said the BJP government will throw out every infiltrator from the country barring Hindus, Sikhs and Bhuddists. “We have made a promise in our manifesto that after the Narendra Modi government is formed at the Centre for the second time, we will implement NRC across the country and will throw out every single infiltrator from the country. The BJP government will also grant Indian citizenship to every Hindu and Buddhist refugee across the country,”. On the scrapping of Article 370, which gives Jammu and Kashmir a special position in Indian union, the BJP leader (to a thundering response from the audience) said, “They (Opposition) say that Article 370 must remain in the country. Tell me whether Article 370 be removed from Kashmir or not? Modi ji has decided that Article 370 will be removed from Kashmir once BJP government is formed at the Centre).” Narendra Modi himself on many occasions in the ongoing election campaign said that Article 370 would be repealed as it was hindering the development of Jammu and Kashmir. The Article 370 besides Article 35-A of Indian constitution have been challenged in the court of law as well by Hindu extremist individuals and groups seeking their annulment from the constitution.

During his 2014 campaign, Narendra Modi promised jobs, development, and growth. Hopeful Indians handed the BJP India’s first single-party parliamentary majority since 1989 and a mandate for reform. But at the end of mandate period, these promises remained unfulfilled. For having failed to keep its word on the promises of economic development, the BJP has no other option but to resort of populist and emotional agenda. The recent heightened military tension with Pakistan is also the main issue in the election campaign of Modi and his party. With all out support from the media, mainly from TV news channels, BJP’s ‘nationalist’ agenda has pushed the opposition parties mainly Congress on the defensive. The opposition parties are finding it difficult to take a reasonable position on issues. Their idea of secularism, the very basis of Indian constitution, is at times projected as anti Hindu and anti national. In this context Imran Khan’s assertions cannot be dismissed arbitrarily. The Pakistan Prime Minister argued that if the next Indian government were led by the opposition Congress party, it might be too scared to seek a settlement with Pakistan over Kashmir, fearing a backlash from the right. “Perhaps if the BJP — a right-wing party — wins, some kind of settlement in Kashmir could be reached,” he told a small group of foreign journalists in an interview. It goes without saying that hard-line Hindu nationalism has become a norm in India through draconian cow protection laws, renaming of cities and streets with Muslim names and appointment of extremist Hindus like Adityanath Yogi to powerful positions. It would be quite a difficult task for any non-BJP government to reverse this “new” India. Imran Khan is right the best bet in this context is only and only Modi.