National/Regional/International
By N. P. Upadhyaya (Aryal)
Kathmandu: Communal solidarity is under severe strain in neighbouring India with which Nepal shares a forced and an open border phenomenon which is a menace for Nepal.
Alarming is that the “practically disturbed” communal congruence in India may sooner than later engulf Nepal which has inopportunely kept the border open with India.
The adjoining western border of Nepal adjoins the highest Muslim concentration of Uttar Pradesh, India ruled by a devout Hindu-Yogi Adityanath.
India’s situation at the moment due to the communal divide is very close to what the writer Khuswant Singh predicts in his book entitled “The End of India” that it will break sooner than later not due to Pakistan or for that matter any foreign power(s), but the end of India shall be at the hands of increasing domestic religion-fanaticism. Writer Singh pointed toward the rising hatred against the minority Muslims and the Dalits.
Huge Muslim protests across Asia after Indian official’s remark about prophet. Photo: The Times of Israel
Any religious-communal cataclysm in the adjoining areas in India is sure to swell Nepal with the exodus of the terrified Muslims or for that matter even the Hindus for a protective shield in Nepal.
Nepal is on record to have already awarded shelter to those Indian Muslims, even from the ruling class, in its territories.
History records have it that “Maharani Jindan Kaur had arrived in Nepal, on 29 April 1849. The British Government promptly confiscated her jewellery worth Rs 9,00,000 and stopped her pension. In Kathmandu, the sudden appearance of the widow of Raja Ranjit Singh of Punjab (in Lahore now) was both unexpected and unwelcome. Yet PM Jung Bahadur, the then ruler prime minister, granted her asylum, mainly as a mark of respect to the memory of the late Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A residence was assigned to her at Thapathali, on the banks of the Bagmati River, close to the Norvic Hospital these days, and the Nepalese government settled upon her an allowance for her maintenance. Honoured shelter for the Queen was granted. (Source: telegraphnepal.com June 8, 2018: Ed. Upadhyaya).
Such an act speaks abundantly of Nepali tolerance and unchallenged compassion.
Yet, another thrilling and empathetic story of granting Asylum in Nepal has it that the queen of Awadh, Begum Hazrat Mahal alias Muhammad Khanum, wife of King Wazid Ali Shah took asylum in Nepal when fighting with the British India Company. She took asylum in Nepal together with her son Birjis Qadir.
The queen died in 1879 and the then Nepal government issued a postal stamp in her honour in 1984. Queen Mahal was born in Faizabad, India. Her burial ground is somewhere located near a Mosque in Ratnapark, close to the Tri Chandra College, Kathmandu, Nepal.
So the history goes back to and reminds us of Nepal’s kind-heartedness.
Thus the exodus of Indian Muslims in Nepal can’t be ruled out if and when the Indian Muslims are pushed to the wall by the government(s) in India whether it is Modi’s or anyone that may follow Modi in due course of time.
Nepal must remain alert to this likelihood. The flood, if allowed, will change the very demographic structure of Nepal. The starving Indian beggars and the Pani Poori and Kawadi wallah and the likes have already swelled the country, to recall.
Hazardous Treaty of peace and friendship:
Nowhere in the Treaty of Peace and Friendship with India signed on July 31, 1950, mentioned that the two countries shall keep their borders open.
This open border wonder in between Nepal and India is the root cause of entire evils which Nepal has been forced to brave since the very next day of the signing of the “unequal” Treaty which neither gave peace nor friendship with India in its truest sense of the term.
Instead, to tell it frankly, the 1950 treaty is a curse or misery for Nepal for multiple reasons.
However, there are thousands and thousands of Nepali intellectuals for whom the open border phenomenon denotes an exemplary bond of friendship with India.
Let’s differ with those intellectuals in that in a democracy, if they take it as an opportunity then we too have a genuine right to differ with what these “special sets” in Nepal define or take Nepal-India relations.
To many in Nepal, India is a real problem. An ardent analysis will bring you all to a single conclusion that Nepal did not flourish simply because of our inaction, and over-dependence on India.
More important is that India never allowed Nepal to flourish through its paid and posted agents in Nepal that run in millions reportedly.
What makes them (the set of Nepalis) toe the Indian line of thinking is best known to the Indian spy agency whose investment runs into billions in Nepal.
RAW far exceeds the penetration of the Chinese spy and the US agencies.
It is said that the money that India mercilessly “drains” from Nepal annually is being spent “willingly” by the Indian spy agency RAW for the upkeep of those domestic agents who reportedly receive their “monthly perks” on the condition that they will henceforth serve Bharat Mata more than what they should do for their own mother Nepal.
Even some media men have reportedly taken a direct approach to Nepal Army institutions. What could be the motive? Keep on guessing?
This is the way India controls entire Nepal including the so-called vibrant media with Delhi’s agents in key media houses.
With the arrival of the new viceroy for Nepal in Kathmandu, let’s hope that the Indian bid for Sikkimisation of Nepal is around the corner given the grand fact that the “elevated” leaders prefer to die for Mera Bharat Mahan. India reigns supreme.
Back to the main story:
A sizable chunk of the Indian population scattered all over India began experiencing some sort of uneasiness immediately after the advent of Modi as the prime minister of India in 2014.
By 2022, Modi’s overly stretched tenure perhaps is taken as the worst period in India’s chequered history for the minorities including the Muslims under this or that pretext.
Very freshly when a BJP (Bharatiya Janta Party) functionary Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal made somewhat harsh comments on the Prophet this May end, 2022, she incensed the Muslims across India and almost set on fire the Islamic nations across the globe that obviously included the 57 member Organization of Islamic Countries ( OIC).
The nations that took the comments on the Prophet seriously were Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Malaysia, Iran, Iraq and Oman and among these countries, the Qatari state even cancelled the pre-scheduled dinner in honour of the visiting Indian Vice President citing covid reasons — the nearest ruse to send “angry” signals these days.
Nupur Sharma (37), a law graduate from Delhi University, jolted the entire nation plus the Hindu section of Nepal as well with her somewhat insulting remarks made on the Prophet.
Though Sharma has time and again stated that her remarks were not “intended to hurt the Muslims”, yet, if it has, then she apologizes.
But yet the fire that she set in India, shook some Muslims inside the country from within whose ultimate result came before the entire “civilized” world on June 28 when two Indian Muslims namely, Mohammad Riaz Attari and Mohammad Ghous in Udaypur, Rajsthan, stunned the entire world when the duo “slaughtered” an innocent Hindu tailor Shri Kanhaiya Lal Sahu Teli as a mark of their revenge to the insult of their Prophet made by Sharma and Jindal.
This was not all. The two accused ones posted the film of their killing of the Hindu tailor on social media which went viral the next moment.
This was too much which speaks of their inner anger which culminated in the gruesome killing of the poor Hindu tailor who did not know why he was murdered.
The fact is that some of his kids inadvertently clicked the share button on social media which supported Nupur Sharma’s harsh comments made on the Prophet.
Kanhaiya was killed for not a fault of his making but surely of his innocent kids, hopefully as is being made known.
A Reuters news on July 2 states that two Muslim men already under arrest for the murder, who filmed the act and posted it online, said it had been a response to the victim’s support for a politician’s derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammad.
A cold-blooded murder that it was which needs to be condemned from all quarters including the peace-loving Muslims across the world as, we believe, the Muslims too would not want anybody to have the fate of Kanhaiya Lal who got beheaded.
The Prophet, we believe, perhaps not has taught his “obedient” disciples to take revenge in this grisly manner if and when he is himself insulted by a non-Muslim perchance.
Even the learned Muslim scholars are on record to have all praise for the Prophet taking him as the apostle of peace and a holy personality who was synonymous with mercy.
Understandably, the thoughts of the Muslims have been hurt, however, the revenge that was seen in Rajasthan on June 28 reminds us all of the horrifying murder last year of a Sri Lankan manager working in Pakistan by some fanatics on grounds that the Sri Lankan deliberately or otherwise hurt the apostle of peace.
The Pakistan government was wise enough to instantly apologize to the Sri Lankan government for the sad event and the matter got settled between the two friendly countries much ahead of the chances of the issue taking a Himalayan dimension.
Even some responsible and sensitive Pakistani nationals told this pen pusher that “it was a shameful event” in the history of their country.
“Some fanatics we too have in our country”, they jointly admitted.
Admitting and accepting the dreadful event makes one wise but not otherwise. A grave diplomatic crisis was thus averted by Pakistan’s prompt response.
Back to the sad story again:
Geeta Pandey for the Yahoonews on July 1 writes that a top court in India has “rebuked” Nupur Sharma’s harsh comments about the Prophet.
The Court said, informs Geeta, that “her loose tongue has set the entire country on fire”.
The Indian Court blamed her for “igniting emotions across the country”.
Sensible and responsible Indian nationals including some legal eagles have said that “the nation is boiling only due to the loose tongue of Nupur and so she must openly apologize and make an avowal that henceforth she will not be the cause for the eruption of violence in the name of religion in the country”.
Of all the comments on Nupur, Talibani spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid in a Tweet reacts and says that Nupur Sharma should be arrested.
In a fresh development, a senior Indian advocate Maninder Singh, who was representing Sharma has told the court that she (Nupur) had already withdrawn the comments made during a TV debate (May end) and has duly apologized for it. But will this apology put the communal hatred at rest?
Will the likes of Nupur Sharma never ever dare to hurt the religious sentiments and beliefs of others? It is in this eventuality the “End of India” depends, for sure.
Jamaat –E- Islami reacts:
The Jamaat -E Islami Hind (JIH) has freshly demanded the instant arrest of Sharma over her controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad.
President Syed Sadatullah Husaini says, “If apology can replace the punishment then there is no need for courts and prisons in the country”.
Some even claim that PM Modi is just a Jumla man.
Follows the Reaction from the US commission:
The Commissioner of the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), David Curry has accused India of continued repression of critical voices, especially of the religious minorities and those reporting on and advocating for them”.
The USCIRF clearly hints at the arrest of the Gujrat activists, Teesta Setalvad, Sreekumar and Sanjeev Bhatt.
Another US Commissioner Stephen Schneck says that harassment of “human rights advocates, journalists, activists, and faith leaders in India is not reflective of a country with a history of democracy”, writes Suhasini Haider on July 2, 2022.
The Indian government rebukes the US claim though.
All sad events after the advent of PM Modi:
Needless to say, India is troubled from within after the advent of PM Modi in India in the year 2014.
Since then, the Hindu supremacists have taken the entire India on their political-religious whims which in many more ways than one has hit the communal synchronization and thus the “divide” is at an all-time high position.
PM Modi is a recognized Islamophobe but yet he is garlanded in Muslim countries in a very puzzling manner.
He freshly visited the United Arab Emirates which surprised many brains around the globe.
While the killing of Kanhaiya Sahu Teli can’t be in any manner taken as an ordinary event, however, the fact is also that “if pushed to the wall”, retaliation in some way or the other perhaps can’t be ruled out.
Noted Muslim media woman Arfa Khanum Sherwani, editor, the Wire, making a speech in Hawaii, US recently tentatively told the audience that her country, India, was at the moment experiencing an “existential threat”.
She gave a lecture at the East-West Center recently.
For the Road: The Siasat Daily reports that a massive protest was organised in London, on July 4, against India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, the Hindu right-wing, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Daily further states that more than 15 Indian diaspora groups in the United Kingdom jointly called for a protest in London, demanding to end the Hindu-supremacist violence growing in India. They called the policies of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘fascist’ and raised slogans against state-sponsored murder, rape, lynchings of Muslims, and bulldozing of their homes.
And a viral joke on PM Modi:
“Modi writes that his Naani died of Spanish Flu (1918-1920). In the same post, he writes his mother was born in 1923. Gazab Hai, bhai! Yeh to Entire Arithmetic ka bhi vishwa guru hai….
All put together, is there an existential threat to India as Arfa Khanum said in the USA recently? That’s all.
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