Islamabad: Dr Moonis Ahmar, former dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Karachi, has said that if Modi wins a two-thirds majority in the ongoing general elections in India, he will prepare to scrap the secular clauses of the Indian constitution. declare India a Hindu state.
Dr. Ahmar was speaking at a round-table discussion on “Dynamics of Indian Elections and its Implications for Pakistan” organized by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) here on Friday.
Professor Ahmar said that during Modi's third term as the Prime Minister of India, the distorted and polarized narratives of the Bharatiya Janata Party would continue to grow unstoppably and as a result all minorities would have to face the music if they did not conform to the Rashtriya Sevak. The Sangha's social order.
Regarding Pakistan-India relations, he said relations between the two countries would remain largely strained as the Modi regime was likely to lobby for the absorption of Gilgit Baltistan (GB) through its propaganda network, adding that such motives could continue . a source of tension between Pakistan and India.
Despite Modi's tough stance on Britain and the state-sponsored terrorism mantra, there could be some breakthroughs in terms of resuming trade and easing visa restrictions, he believed. Why, because Modi would like to leave a legacy as a peacemaker as it would be his last position in power, he added.
However, if we look at the real situation, the current elections in India would be a one-on-one fight between NDA-led BJP and Congress-led INDIA, hence it was difficult to predict a clean sweep by Modi, he added.
He further claimed that a two-thirds majority would not be a piece of cake for Modi as there was no “Modi wave” in this election as such, which was there in the 2019 elections mainly because of the so-called Pulwama incident in February 2019, he added.
Dr. Ahmar said the INDIA alliance led by the Congress has been relying on Modi's communal politics for a long time but in the past it could not have a significant impact in terms of increasing their vote bank, however in the recent elections there was a chance that INDIA might be able to capitalize on the highly charged Modi's polarized policies, he noted. Apart from this, the BJP's persecution of opposition leaders and workers and the systematic strangling of judicial independence at home had also had a ripple effect on society, he said, but how it reflected in the election results remained to be seen.