Expressing serious concerns over the widening gap and enmity between religious communities in India, the Welfare Party of India (WPI) called upon the people of all religions and castes to get united and maintain harmony to keep India’s pluralistic social fabrics and the tradition of peaceful coexistence of different communities with diverse cultural backgrounds.
“India has traditionally been a great land that hosted peaceful coexistence of different religions, castes and other communities with diverse cultural identities. It has been a synonym for harmony and peace despite having cultural, linguistic, regional and ethnic diversities. Unity in diversity is India’s strength and we need to protect its pluralistic social fabrics,” Tajuddin Ilakal, State working committee member of WPI, said.
Addressing a media conference in Kalaburagi on Thursday, Mr. Ilakal held British rulers in pre-independence responsible for sowing the seed of communalism as part of their divide-and-rule policy to keep the power at their hands by keeping the indigenous groups busy in fighting each other.
“It was the British who first sowed the seed of communalism in India to divide the Indians along religious lines. Dividing Indians as Hindus and Muslims and keeping them busy hating and fighting each other proved to be an effective policy for British rulers to keep the power in their hands. Unfortunately, communalism was nurtured by the vested interests in India even after the Independence. As a result, the seed of communalism sown by British rulers has now grown into a massive tree to threatening the very existence of India and its identity of pluralism,” he said.
Holding successive governments that ruled India after Independence, especially the BJP, responsible for India’s backwardness despite having rich natural resources, Mr. Ilakal said that all the political parties that ruled India had focused on dividing people on cultural identities such as religion and castes instead of making use of the abundant natural resources for the development of the country and her people.
“After BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014, the politics of hate gathered momentum. The disadvantaged communities such as Muslims, Adivasis and Dalits, began to be marginalised throwing the very aspirations of Indian Constitutions in the air. Instead of focusing on utilising India’s rich natural resources to eradicate poverty, unemployment, economic inequality and illiteracy, the BJP government at the Centre is flaring up sensitive communal issues by targeting a particular community [Muslims] and projecting it as an enemy of the country so that it could polarise the people along religious lines and remain in power with the support of the majority,” Mr. Ilakal said.
10-day campaign
Mujahid Pasha Qureshi, the State Vice-president of WPI, said that his party had launched a 10-day statewide campaign on Wednesday to sensitise the people on the designs of communal forces and the importance of peace and harmony among the different communities in the society.
“Under the slogan of Erase Hate and Save India, the WPI has launched a statewide campaign to spread awareness among the people about the evil designs of communal forces and the importance of peace and harmony among different communities in the society. Street corner meetings, interactions with intellectuals, youths and students, public meetings, processions, bike rallies and skits would be part of the awareness campaign,” Mr. Pasha said.
Mubin Ahmad, State secretary of WPI, said that five regional-level public conferences, including one in Kalaburagi, would be held at different parts of the State to culminate the 10-day campaign on November 10.
