“Muslims who are opposing Pakistan will spend rest of their lives proving loyalty to India,” Jinnah once said in 1945. They are resounding too loud after the Indian parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019. This bill provides a path to Indian citizenship only for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious minorities fleeing persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and exclude Muslims from their list of potential beneficiaries, respectively. Indian secular character was always doubtful, but now it has reached to a verge of annihilation and CAB is paving the way for India’s “theocratisation.”
In the view of many seasoned Indian scholars, this move of BJP spells partition 2.0 for the Indian subcontinent. The amendment has been extensively condemned as discriminating based on religion. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called it fundamentally discriminatory, adding that while India’s goal of protecting persecuted groups is welcome, this should be achieved through a non-discriminatory national asylum system. As of 12 December, the protests had resulted in more than a thousand arrests and six deaths; civil liberties and communication facilities were frequently suspended by the police in response. The current protests are happening nearly eight years after riots between Muslim migrants and native Bodo Hindus over illegal immigration to Assam resulted in 77 deaths.
It is fitting to say that Quid-e-Azam comprehended the Hindu mindset and farsighted the Hindu hostility. On the other side, CAB has revealed the short-sightedness of the Muslim leaders such Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Sayyid Husain Ahmad Madani, Allama Mashriqi, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad etc. They perceived the apparent through their short-sightedness. But Mr Jinnah realised the actual and relied on farsightedness. Let’s understand far and short-sightedness in little more detail and connect with current happenings.
In medical diction short-sightedness, or myopia, is a prevalent eye condition that causes distant objects to appear blurred. From a social and political perspective, the term refers to a lack of foresight or discernment, a narrow view of something, or a lack of imagination. When short-sightedness starts appearing in the decision making of the leadership of a nation, this is named as political myopia and signifies the deficiency of prophetic vision. Political systems are designed to overcome that myopic tendency. However, the representative system of democracy forces individuals in power toward short-term self-interest rather than the long-term health of the country as a whole.
Democracy, regrettably, is not an immaculate and flawless political solution. It comes with its limitations. One of these limitations has always been a tendency for short-term interests to prevail at the expense of long-term considerations. That is what has been witnessed when Mr Imran Khan withdrew from participating in the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019. Riyadh is not happy with Malaysia’s attempt to build a platform that could potentially challenge the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is led by Saudi Arabia. If IK took this decision to safeguard our people working in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) who is sending remittances and saving a reserve amount borrowed from KSA, then cancelation of scheduled attendance by PM is indeed a demonstration of short term interest.
The idea of the KL Summit was born out of a trilateral pow-wow among Mahathir, Khan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York: absolute a farsightedness. The common perception of the three countries was that the Muslim world had failed to react forcefully enough to the emergent situation affecting the Kashmiri Muslims, a perception actively promoted by Pakistan, and a new platform is needed to bring together Islamic leaders, scholars and clerics who would propose solutions to the many problems facing the world’s 1.7 billion Muslims. Where in the doom has this far-sightedness been left drowning by PM Imran Khan? Has the government thought on how to deal with such countries that do not allow its partnering nations to grow on their own, wishes to enslave and threat?
In light of our current predicament, it is not surprising that political cynicism in Pakistan has reached new heights; in fact, pitiful lows. Trust in institutions has been steadily declining for decades, but imploding now. Voters express increasing dissatisfaction with the options presented to them in the voting booth. Confronted daily with the ordinary realities of political life, one can hardly blame Pakistani for looking upon it all with disappointment and disdain. In moments such as these, when our institutions falter and our political myopia returns, who could help? Only the way of Mr Jinnah is the way of far-sightedness.A