Why the ascent of Narendra Modi and BJP is making many Pakistanis very happy

by Guest Sat Oct 31, 2015 12:39 pm

Thirdly and most importantly, Modi's ascent has been the best news for the Pakistani right-wing. Why just right-wing, even a liberal Pakistani friend told me why he was happy to see Modi take the prime minister's office. "India's secular mask needed to go," he said. "India pretended to be this secular country and Pakistan looked bad in contrast."

It goes further. Pakistan's formative idea is the two-nation theory, the idea that Hindus and Muslims are not just separate communities but separate nations, deserving their own nation states. It's an idea whose polar opposite is Indian secularism, which sees Hindus, Muslims and everyone else co-existing together, with no state discrimination on account of religion.

So why would Pakistan be unhappy to see the rise of the BJP and the discrediting, indeed disavowal, of Indian secularism?

When an Akhlaq is murdered on false beef rumours, Pakistanis feel vindicated. When BJP leaders and ministers justify the incident - it was an accident, cow slaughter hurts sentiments, etc, - it proves for Pakistanis the rationale of the two-nation theory. That without their own country, Pakistanis would have been facing bans on cow meat, and getting lynched even if they were eating mutton.

The RSS-BJP's clear agenda is to make Indian Muslims second class citizens, one election at a time, which is exactly what Jinnah said he feared, except he feared it from the Congress!

The Hindu right likes to provoke neighbouring countries with the idea of a Greater India, Akhand Bharat, but if you sit down and ask, they don't think Partition was such a bad thing. Partition reduced the proportion of Muslim population vis-a-vis Hindus, how could it be a bad thing?

"Narendra Modi is the best thing that could have happened to Pakistan," veteran Pakistani journalist Ayaz Amir wrote recently. "He is making India look like General Zia's Pakistan. Can there be a bigger favour to Pakistan than that?" he asked.

He writes what India looks like from Pakistan these days: "Assaults on liberalism, threats to free speech, people killed because of their beliefs or what they stand for, hate and bigotry on the loose, extreme expressions of religiosity, indeed religion entering the political discourse like never before...these were things that were supposed to happen in Pakistan."

"Narendra Modi is a godsend to Pakistan. More power to Hindutva," Ayaz Amir writes. Amit Shah should read his column to realise Pakistanis would actually burst crackers not if the BJP loses Bihar, but if it wins Bihar.

No matter who wins Bihar, the falling depths of the BJP's communalised campaign have already made India lose some of its claim to moral superiority over Pakistan.

Pakistanis won't need to wait till 8 November to say, in Fahmida Riaz's words:

Tum bilkul hum jaisey nikley
ab tak kahaan chhupe thay bhai

(You turned out to be just like us
where were you hiding all this while).

http://www.ndtv.com/opinion/why-pakistan-wont-burst-crackers-if-bjp-loses-bihar-1238329?site=full