‘Supremacist’ India has lost the way of Gandhi – Pakistani FM

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has accused India’s government of straying from the path of non-violence espoused by Mahatma Gandhi, and embracing Hindu extremism, after a controversial Supreme Court decision.

“India of today is not India of Gandhi and Nehru,” Qureshi told reporters on Tuesday. “It is now Hindustan, which is dominated by supremacist Hindutva ideology. After disregarding Gandhi’s values, secular India has got buried … under RSS ideology,” he continued, referring to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu organization linked to the ruling BJP party.

Qureshi’s anger was stoked by an Indian Supreme Court decision on Saturday to grant control of a disputed holy site in the northern town of Ayodhya to the Hindu community, who plan to build a temple. The site was formerly home to the Babri Mosque, which was demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992, an act that led to religious riots and saw the RSS temporarily banned.

Qureshi boasted that Pakistan was “setting up a Gurdwara (Sikh worship place)” and allowing pilgrims to visit holy sites in the country, while India was “demolishing a mosque,” and also accused the Indian government of restricting the religious freedom of Muslims living in disputed Kashmir.

The Supreme Court did, however, allocate the Muslims of Ayodhya a separate five acre site to build a new mosque on, and acknowledged that the 1992 demolition was a violation of the law. 

Not all Muslims shared Qureshi’s anger either. The Babri Mosque Citizen Resolution Committee viewed the decision as putting an end to decades of dispute, with a spokesman telling Al Jazeera“we have no issues if it [the temple] is built there but we would have been happier if the court had specified the place where the mosque would be built.”

Despite the acrimony, many see the decision as an important step towards normalizing relations between the faiths. The economy of Ayodhya depends heavily on Hindu pilgrims, one million of whom are descending on the town this week to pay homage to the deity Rama, and further religious strife would disrupt this bounty.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also urged Indians not to see the verdict as a victory for Hindus.

“The calm and peace maintained by Indians in the run-up to today's verdict manifests India's inherent commitment to peaceful coexistence,” Modi said on Saturday, calling for “unity and togetherness.”

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