On February 28th, the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman will be released as a ‘peace gesture’. The Indian liberal ‘peacenik’ industry predictably saw a ‘hero’ in Imran Khan, who according to them had shown mercy to Indian Air Force pilot.
All the grandstanding and bravado over the ‘peace gesture’ claimed by both the Pakistani establishment and the Indian liberals was soon exposed to be a farce, as the inherent hatred of the Pakistani government ministers against Hindus and India is being gradually exposed.
The fervent anti-Indian or anti-Hindu narrative in Pakistan is not a new phenomenon. The idea of Pakistan was itself premised on the eternal hatred towards Hindus, however, it has grown gradually in the last few decades due to various politico-religious reasons. The Pakistani establishment aided by its ‘deep state’ often becomes very enthusiastic about ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’, one of the lunacies peddled by radical Islamists to fool terror recruits into believing that killing Hindus and waging war against India is their religious duty.
In recent decades, as Pakistan’s socio-economic status kept declining among the countries who had also gained freedom or were formed around the same time, the Ghazwa-e-Hind narrative became another one of the easy tools for Pakistani politicians to justify their policies and hide their failures.
Even as Imran Khan has continued his hollow statements about peace and ‘talks’, many of his ministers have been betraying the real face of Pakistan’s politics where radicalism, hatred against Hindus and India is all they have to show for 70 years of their existence.
Journalist Swati Goel Sharma has listed some of the instances where ‘peace-loving’ Imran Khan’s ministers were found peddling rabid Hindu-hatred and propagating the ideas of India’s annihilation. As mentioned in an article in the Swarajya Magazine co-authored by Swati, the hatred against Hindus and India runs deep in many politicians currently holding power in Pakistan.
Shockingly, one of his ministers, Ali Muhammad Khan openly called ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’, the last holy war against Hindus and India, by invoking Islamic invaders Muhammad bin Qasim and Mahmood of Ghazni. Ali Muhammad Khan, who is the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in Pakistan had claimed that Pakistanis were the descendants of Islamic invaders in India and had warned India of “Ghazwa-e-Hind”.
Fayaz-ul-Hasan Chohan, another minister in Imran Khan’s government, in a recent speech called Hindus as “cow urine drinkers”. Interestingly, the phrase ‘cow urine drinkers’ is commonly used to target Hindus not only by Islamists, terrorists but also it has become a ‘fanciful’ term for Indian liberals to either refer Hindus or anybody who is critical of them.
The term ‘cow urine drinkers’ was also used by Jaish terrorist Adil Ahmad Dar before he had hit the CRPF convoy in Pulwama. In a hurry to show their hatred towards Hindus and its culture, the Indian liberal cabal has often knowingly or unknowingly has played to the hands of the Islamists, which the latter has successfully utilised to create a divide in the Indian society as a part of achieving their objective of ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’.
On 19 February, Pakistani railways minister Sheikh Rasheed had threatened Indians and the Hindus with a nuclear war and had claimed that no bells would sound in Indian temples. “If anyone will stare at Pakistan with an evil eye, his eye will be gouged out, and then no grass will grow, no birds will chirp, and no bells will sound in temples, as Pakistan is that bastion of Muslims that Muslims from the world over look up to,” said the senior minister in a video uploaded by him.
In fact, Rasheed had also opposed the release of Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman. He had appealed to every Muslim to join “Jihad”. “Doing Jihad is mandatory in Islam. If a Muslim does not do Jihad, he is no longer a Muslim,” he had said. In an earlier video, Rasheed had said that not only 22 crore Muslims but 30 crores Muslims on Indian side too would rise against Modi in the name of Islam.
Shahbaz Sharif, a younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, during his speech in a parliament session during the ongoing tension between India and Pakistan, had called Indian PM Narendra Modi as “terrorist” and claimed he had martyred thousands of Muslims in Gujarat. The rant against Hindus and Indians is not just limited to politicians but to the so-called intelligentsia of Pakistan, who are aroused lately to express their contempt towards the Hindus.
Orya Maqbool Jan, known to be an intellectual in Pakistan, while discussing the Pulwama terror attacks, claimed that Hindus were enemies of Muslims as it is described as such in the Islamic holy book of Quran and Hadith. Maqbool further said that the main issue is that confrontation between Hindus and Muslims is bound to happen. “It hasn’t happened until now, but when it shall happen, twenty-three crore Muslims will cease to be Indian nationals,” said Maqbool.
Hassan Nisar, another veteran journalist while speaking about the possibility of nuclear attacks had said that even if Pakistan is destroyed during a nuclear conflict, Muslims elsewhere in the world will survive but if India is attacked, Hindus will cease to exist. “It’s okay if you want to attack us. If you dream to turn the entire region into ash, then it’s fine. We have 50 (Islamic) countries in the name of God, but you don’t have an existence beyond yours,” he said.
Most importantly, Imran Khan, the flag-bearer of peace is no different. An anecdote of Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan and one of the most prominent diplomats of our times, G Parthasarathy gives an idea regarding the dubious nature of Pakistani PM Imran ‘Taliban’ Khan’s idea of peace towards India.
Parthasarathy had shared an incident, “This was in 1982. A friend of mine, a Pakistani cricket commentator called Chisti Mujahid, who is no longer alive, asked him, Imran, why is it when I saw you were bowling against England, it was okay, you were bowling well, but when it is against India it is fire and brimstone?’ Imran’s reply? “Well, when we play against India, I don’t see this game as cricket. I think of Kashmir, and regard it as a jihad.”
Imran Khan’s Taliban connections and open support for religious fanatics indulged in terrorist activities is an open secret. In their haste to discredit the Modi government and hail Imran Khan as the hero, even many of India’s liberals have been ignoring the fact that his government scrambled fighter jets to invade Indian airspace in defence of India’s strike against a terrorist camp.
Just the facts that the personalities discussed here are not fringe, but powerful Pakistani politicians and elite citizens give a glimpse of how ‘mainstream’ the ideas like ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’ and ‘Jihad against Hindus’ are in our western neighbour.
As evident by these statements including by its own Prime Minister Imran Khan, the psyche of most of the Pakistani politicians and intelligentsia has always been to hate Hindus and Indians and pave way for ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’. However, Indian liberals, who often uses similar derogatory phrases to target Hindus, has remained silent over Pakistan’s rhetoric of ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’ and ‘Jihad’ against Hindus and Indians.
UPDATE: It has now emerged that Imran Khan, the Pakistan PM has sacked minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan for his anti-Hindu rant.
