Rajiv Lochan

Finally the fantasy nurtured by India’s liberals and the Indian National Congress is coming true. For the past so many years liberals have argued that Indian Muslims only vote for a Muslim supporting party. Now a Muslim party is about to be created covering all of India. Get ready for another Partition of India.

Good old liberalism, if you recall, was responsible for creating separate electorates in India in 1909. Separatism was not the creation of the British Empire or colonialism or imperialism or capitalism but of the liberals.

The shock of killings during the partition of India silenced the separatist component of liberalism for a few years. But since the early 21st century the liberal fantasy of providing Muslims with a homeland have resurfaced. First it was Rajinder Sachar who wrote a report for the Congress government pointing out that Muslims had been left out in the India that grew after 1947. Then Manmohan Singh came forward to promise Muslims the first share of anything and everything in India.

Sonia Gandhi chipped in by condemning Narendra Modi, the one man who singlehandedly stopped communal riots in Gujarat. Sonia said that Modi was a ‘Maut Ka Saudagar’, trader in death. The people of India had by now wizened up to the tricks that liberals played. The people kicked out the Congress government. Voted Modi into power. Now the liberals asserted that Muslims did not, will not, ever, vote for Modi.

It took a while for Muslims to realise that following the logic of the liberals they were best off having a party of their own. That party now, is about to take birth. Liberal Muslims, radical Muslims, their non-Muslim supporters who are liberal and radical, are going to form that party and ensure that it represents Muslims, provides a voice to Muslims. This is an Idea of India that needs to be urgently destroyed.

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Rajiv Lochan, the author, is an acclaimed scholar, historian and author