N. P. Upadhyaya, Kathmandu: The South Asian population witnessed a high (and disgusting that it was) drama staged last month by the most repulsive Indian Politician Prime Minister Modi when he all of a sudden ordered his “yes men” in the region to join him in a video conference and that he wants to tell them all on how to tame the deadly Corona Virus that has terrified now the entire world
It is altogether a different matter that at the moment, India is the worst hit of all in this part of the world due to the scourge of COVID-19.
And this India reportedly said Nepal not to panic. What a joke?
In fact PM Modi is himself a COVID man, so believes a sizeable chunk of Nepali population who have experienced his cruelty and ruffian acts during the economic blockade imposed on Nepal, in 2015, by the mentally sick regime in India headed by Modi himself and assisted by the present day foreign minister, J Shankar.
Shankar was in Nepal to order the halt of the promulgation of the new constitution, if one were to recall.
Shankar, presumed to be a Hindu fundamentalist of the highest order was then serving as clerk-in-chief at the Indian foreign ministry.
However, yet some Nepali nationals were not ready to take the Indian blockade as a cordon for some “understandable” political reasons.
Ruffians will remain ruffians come what may whether it is Nepal or India.
In fact, PM Modi when faced a grand debacle in the domestic and the International front because of the unprecedented State Organized Delhi violence at the end of this February and thus he preferred to deviate the attention of the world leaders, more so of the immediate neighbors to begin with, and thus he needed the staging of a high voltage political play which tentatively worked as the yes men of the Indian Premier too joined Modi’s chorus of the video event on March 15 and spoke of the looming threat to their domestic population due to the threat of the Corona Virus-19 which is talked to have originated in Wuhan, China and now spread all over the globe.
China exported COVID-19 to the entire globe. Admit it.
Some joined the Video conference willingly and some were ordered.
Frail and ailing Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli rushed to join his Indian friend from the Hospital bed.
PM Oli had just then undergone Kidney transplant but yet he concluded not to displease Modi for perhaps fear of the likelihood of the imposition of yet another blockade by India on Nepal a la 2015.
So this is the image of the Indian Prime Minister in Nepal. However, high placed sources say that PM Modi and Nepal PM Oli were friends from the Mahakali River Treat Ratification days.
In fact Oli, then as a simple UML leader got a chance to inch closer to the Indian establishment. It was this Mahakali River treaty ratification that brought Oli closer to the New Delhi regime permanently that still continues as was evident when Oli dutifully attended the Modi sponsored Video conference last month.
However, at time of the blockade in 2015, Oli though preferred to be close to the Beijing command. This was just by accident.
The global population is at the moment in self-preferred isolation (Lock down) or have been ordered by their national governments to opt for isolation or else face consequences.
Italy, China, France, Spain and the USA have been the worst hit by Covid-19.
Let’s come closer to the video conference summoned by PM Modi and attended by his followers in the Region.
He committed blunders which are as follows:
Modi’s blunder: The Indian Prime Minister Modi in the process of bagging accolades from his regional yes-men (almost semi protectorates) for having initiated a somewhat generous act miserably failed or rather ignored the office of the SAARC Secretary General based in Kathmandu.
The newly appointed SAARC Secretary General is from Gotabaya’s Island nation which responded to Modi’s call on Corona Virus as if the Indian Prime Minister have had invented the needed vaccine for the cure of the Corona Virus and that the Sri Lankan President would benefit from Modi’s novel invention.
However, in the process an overly excited President Gotabaya preferred to forget his own distinguished Secretary General Ambassador Esala Ruwan Weerakoon who should in effect have conducted the rest of the proceedings if it were to be taken as an initiative taken up by the SAARC Headquarters based in Kathmandu.
Sources say that Ambassador Weerakoon was completely unaware of such an event that could bypass his “role” in the absence of which it was just a collection of some South Asian leaders having intimate personal ties with the Indian Prime Minister who created a sort of mayhem right inside Delhi by organizing an “Organized violence” against some minorities whom the entire Modi team (Modi, Doval Amit plus J Shankar) hates.
The Sri Lankan blunder: The President of Sri Lanka prior to his participation in the Modi’s Corona conference, let’s call it a calculatedly staged drama to irritate China, must have ensured that the conference was being organized under the aegis of the SAARC body and that the current Chair of the SAARC should take the legal and appropriate role as is demanded by the Charter of the Regional Organization.
However, President Gotabaya made a diplomatic blunder to which his own population must not have taken in good taste.
Albeit, what appeared to most of the Nepali observers that Modi in effect wanted the revival of the SAARC Organization finally to which it was not.
Had Modi given the task of the proceedings to go through the high offices of the SAARC Secretary General, a glimmer of hope would have been noted, however, as the conference began nothing of that sort was visible which supported the false claim that Modi now is a changed man and that he would now, keeping aside his differences with Pakistan, help revive the Regional body.
Modi was at the center stage which is what he wished.
The fact is that the Delhi violence brought Modi closer to Adolph Hitler and that he wanted to cool the irritated world leaders and population and thus he decided to stage a drama that sent messages across the globe that PM Modi is still a popular leader in the SAARC region to which he is not.
In fact he is the most hated leader in South Asia.
That Modi was not a preferred leader in South Asia got reflected when Pakistan opted not to entertain Modi’s conference call at the PM level and instead of the Prime Ministerial participation ( as was expected by the erratic regime of Modi), Pakistan Prime Minister sent his Health Advisor to respond to PM Modi’s call.
This was a fitting response to what PM Modi deserved. The advisor to the Pakistan Prime Minister talked of Corona-19 and also trickily touched upon the plight of the caged Kashmiri population who were under detention since August 5/2019.
Now the million dollar question is why President Gotabaya yielded to PM Modi’s call and promptly attended the Video conference on Corona-19? Is then President Gotabaya a changed political persona now? He was a different person during the LTTE eradication process during 2009.
Let’s not talk of Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives for some good known tilt and political reasons.
As regards the Afghan President Asraf Ghani’s participation in the said COVID-19 seminar, President Ghani got a chance through this Video conference to get wanted recognition by at least the SAARC countries that he was the elected President of Afghanistan.
In fact Ghani got an opportunity to sound Abdullah Abdulla (Ghani’s competitor) that he was the legitimate President of Afghanistan.
For this Modi came to his rescue and in turn Modi found a strong political man in Kabul. Ghani cashed in upon the opportunity offered by PM Modi. Modi ensured that Ghani was his loyal friend in Afghanistan after the February 29 Doha peace deal.
But then whose man is Abdullah? Or he is still bargaining?
In fact, India had completely been ignored at time of the Doha peace deal. Now with this Video conference India has once again entered into Afghanistan much to the displeasure of the US and Pakistan.
Let’s now talk of the Tabligi jamaat and the biased views expressed against this Jamaat in certain quarters in South Asia, mainly in India.
In fact, Tablighi Jamaat is an orthodox Islamic missionary movement with members across the world.
Thousands of people from across Asia and elsewhere gather at its global headquarters in New Delhi’s densely-populated Nizamuddin West neighbourhood famous for its Sufi shrines and kebab stalls.
A few Muslims from Nepal (Parsa and Saptari districts) too have reportedly attended the Delhi congregation in and around Nizamuddin area.
It is these attendees in Delhi who are being held suspect as to have been the carriers of the Corona virus-19.
However, prior to hurling accusations on the Tablighi Jamaat what is required is a firmer but well-thought-out plan of action, especially in Pakistan and India where religion is not simply about faith or culture but is also central to politics and identity of people. Convincing one segment of population becomes tough, especially if the government is seen as partisan.
At least Nepal has no problem with this Tablighi Jamaat as this Jamaat have had its convention held recently in Saptari (in middle February this year) district to which the Indian authorities had some reservations against this gathering inside Nepal. However, when Nepal took the Muslim convention as a normal phenomenon then why the Indian establishment was in a state of annoyance?
Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia had reportedly attended the Nepali gathering.
The accusations on Jamaat Muslims may have been due to the fact that this body consisted of the Muslims only and that the Indian establishment is now under the tight control of the Hindu fundamentalist party-the BJP.
Clash of religion?
The BJP takes the Muslims as inferior ones as compared to the ruling Hindus. Dr Subramanian Swamy, a senior leader of the ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and a member of India’s parliament, has said that Muslims are not equal citizens since they pose a threat to the world. He was speaking to journalist Isobel Yeung of the Global Village Space dated April 3/2020 when he ( Swamy) slammed over 200 million people of his own country; Muslims.
Blatant Racism. Time and again we have pointed out that BJP’s Nazi inspired ideology is that of hatred and bigotry against the minorities of India, and here he’s said it out clearly. pic.twitter.com/eHCcwbiwlz
— Murad Saeed (@MuradSaeedPTI) April 2, 2020
He was supposed to justify an ongoing human rights crisis in India, where Muslims are treated like second-class citizens. “On this issue, the country is with us,” he told Yeung. “Most people like our hard-line approach to solving pending problems.”
He went on to say that “where the Muslim population is large, there is always trouble,” which Yeung countered by pointing out that with 200 million Muslim residents, India has the second-largest Islamic population in the world. When Swamy stuck to his position, she told him his comments sounded “like hatred,” but he said he was being “kind.”
This speaks the general mindset of the Hindus now ruling the Indian landmass.
The same news outlet further writes quoting Dr. Moeed Pirzada that the “Indian politics is being shaped by the extremist politicians and strategists who intend to wipe out the Muslim minority from India.
Dr Moeed Pirzada, is a prominent political commentator and columnist, who recently noted that with “Ram Rath Yatra, Mandal Commission, Ram Janma Bhomi movement, Attack on Babri Mosque, demolition of Babri Mosque, Bombay riots, nuclear explosions of 1997, Kargil Conflict, attack on Indian Parliament, mobilization against Pakistan, Gujrat Pogroms and Mumbai terrorism everything in one or the other was skillfully utilized in redefining Indian narrative and politics moving it ever closer to the realization of a Hindu Rashtra which now exists in reality though it still needs a legal and constitutional cover”.
What if the Indian Muslims are pushed to the walls? Will they retaliate and cry “enough is enough”? How the average Indian Muslims will take Dr. Swamy’s direct insult which he made while talking with Ms. Isobel Yeung of the Global Village? If so then does it hint that India awaits one more partition on the lines of the religion in the near future a la Pakistan? Keep on guessing. That’s all.