Indian society falling apart due to extremist ideology: Alvi

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has said Indian society is actually falling apart due to the extremist ideology propagated by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founders and frantically pursued by the Bharatiya Janata Party through its Hindutva policies.

In an exclusive interview with a renowned think tank the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI), and telecast by PTV, the President said what was happening in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) was a continuous momentum built up for long by whipping up anti-Muslims and anti-minorities policies, including forced conversion of Christians by the RSS zealots inside India.

All was done with objectives to rewrite history of India by isolating Muslims and excluding the Muslim era and their contributions by labelling them as something bad for Hindus or India, he added. “What we do when we talk about Kashmir, it is not Kashmir alone, it is the momentum of whatever has been happening in India, which has been anti-Muslim, which has been anti-minorities, not only Muslims, but all minorities,” he added.

To a query, the President replied that all commissions, which were formed in India to look at the minorities issues, found that there was a bias against them institutionally and within Indian society. “So, you have a Muslim population, which according to Indian estimates, maybe about 13 to 15 per cent, but you have almost only one or two per cent representation in the parliament. So, there is no reflection in the economy, they are further poor,” he observed.

About the role of Indian Supreme Court, he said the minorities in India had no hopes with their superior judiciary. “The Supreme Court of India has had a very bad history,” he said, adding: “The faith placed in the Supreme Court of India when Article 370 was being changed as far as Kashmir is concerned there was an appeal in the Indian Supreme Court, and they delayed it until it became a law.”

That’s what they did on Babri Masjid, they gave a very bad statement on the riots which happened in Gujarat, he added.

Dr Alvi said Pakistan’s first priority was Kashmir. “We know that Kashmir should have been a part of Pakistan according to the principles of partition. In fact, Gurdaspur should have been a part of Pakistan. It was specifically carved away from Pakistan to allow India to access Kashmir, that was the mischief which happened against Pakistan,” he added.

He further said that as President of Pakistan, he was disappointed that international organisations were more motivated by trade and financial interests. He, however, expressed the hope that international cooperation would be related more to moralities, more to human rights issues, more to people, rather than just money and finance.

He expressed his confidence that the incoming US president Joe Biden would play his role in the resolution of Kashmir dispute.