By Sharique Anwer for TwoCircles.net,
On March 27, 2015 President of India, Pranab Mukherjee presented Bharat Ratna to former Prime Minister and one of the founding leader of BJP Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
From Right Wing supporters to liberals almost everyone applauded the gesture of the NDA government to confer Atal Bihar Vajpayee with Country’s highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna. Also, I saw many staunch congress supporters tweeting against Bharta Ratna to former PM. Congress supporters attacked NDA government over Bharat Ratna to ABV is like “Foot in the mouth moment” in my opinion, after congress government’s own act of awarding Bharat Ratna to Indira Gandhi and Rajeev Gandhi in the past.
The most sickening part is to see liberal terming Atal Bihari Vajpayee a great statesman and somehow liberal leader in BJP party. This shows the utter mindset of pseudo liberals in the country. ABV was a RSS man from his childhood. His activities during freedom struggle and Quit India movement has always been questioned. In the past Subramanian Swamy had labelled him as “British Agent” during Quit India Movement. Let’s not talk about this.
On December 5, 1992 in a speech in Lucknow, He said” Zameen ko samtal karna padega, baithne layaq banana padega” referring to the structure of Babri Mosque. Also, He closed his eyes during post Godhra Riots in Gujarat, at a time as a PM he could have prevented lot of damage. Contrary to that, in his speech in Goa on April 12, 2002, He went on saying “Who lit the fire? Muslims cannot co-exist with non-Muslims.” I wish someone would have told him the basic human responsibility that violence cannot be answered by violence.
The deadliest riot of Ahmadabad in 1969 has occurred during congress rule. There were speculations at that time that the riot was engineered to discredit the then Chief Minister Hitendra Desai who was a supporter of Murarji Desai instead of Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister of India at that time, which hints that just for political gain she could have engineered massacre of hundreds of innocents and loss of infrastructure and property of the country.
The emergency imposition by the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad by the request of Indira Gandhi from June 25, 1975 to March 21, 1977 was the black spot In India’s history. Her ruthless behavior was not that of a great leader (Durga) but of a shallow and egoistic individual during the emergency period. She had ruled the country by decree during the emergency period, No good work of Mrs. Gandhi can justify the undemocratic behavior of her.
Moradabad riots of August 1980 had happened under congress government, V.P Singh was the Chief Minister of UP and Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of the Country. It was one of the worst riot in the history of independent India in which Muslims were massacred by PAC personnel. Indira Gandhi never tried to give justice to the victims. As the Prime Minister of the country Indira Gandhi was equally responsible for the Nellie pogrom of innocent Muslims in which we blame ABV for inciting the mobs.
The case of Rajiv Gandhi is nothing sort of mystery, he was a confused man as a leader who had been served the post of PM without any experience in the politics. The anti-Sikh riots of 1984 in Delhi in which thousands were massacred mercilessly after Indira Gandhi’s assassination is a fine example of the hollowness of India’s secularism and its leaders when it comes to the safety of minorities in the country. The disgusting remark of Rajiv Gandhi as “when big tree falls, the earth shakes” in 1984 was not less vile than Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s statements of Lucknow and Goa. Exonerating Rajeev Gandhi of anti-Sikh riots of 1984 is an insult to the victims. Also, the Meerut riots of 1987 in which Muslim youths were handpicked in Hashimpura by PAC personnel and their cold blood murder had happened under Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister of India in which the victims never got justice by the Indian government.
The 1989 Bhagalpur riots against Muslims in Bihar is another massacre of Muslims under Congress rule in state and center. The visit of Rajiv Gandhi to Bhagalpur after eruption of riots and his return on the demand of rioters was the most cowardice act he had ever taken. After Rajiv Gandhi’s decision to not visit the riot hit area in Bhagalpur after protest of the rioters has boosted the morals of the mobs which led to the massacre of even more innocent Muslims along with loot and arson of Muslim properties. Was the power of PM so little that he acted as directed by rioting mobs or he had acted intentionally in the favor of mobs? Well, he had tendency to act in the favor of majorities, whether 1984 riots, Babri Masjid issue, Bhagalpur issue or 1987 Meerut rots. Terming Rajeev Gandhi as a secular leader would be an insult to the victims of all the communal violence under his tenure.
If Jawaharlal Nehru were alive, he would be as ashamed of Babri demolition, 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom and recent Muzaffarnagar riots as the riots which had occurred under the nose of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi in addition with emergency imposition by Indira Gandhi on the nation.
So, let the respective government award Bharat Ratna to whoever they want, there is no point of outrage over it which no longer holds the its true glory.