Which single historical event in India's post-independence era do you believe most profoundly shaped its commitment to national unity?
Nehru’s fake secularism and Muslim appeasement. Despite the trauma of Partition, the Constituent Assembly refused to treat Muslims as ‘the other’. Nehru declared that India’s greatness would depend on how it treated minorities. Azad reminded the Assembly that Muslims, majority of whom demanded separate homeland called Pakistan but 90% of them stayed back in India and who stayed back after partition did so out of conviction, not compulsion. The Constitution embodied a radical promise: fraternity across faith, equality before law, and dignity for all. There was no opposition party during Nehru era. The result? Karnataka High Court recently says in a judgement that one area of Bengaluru city is ‘mini Pakistan’! This created controversy but exposed the reality that every city and state has ‘mini Pakistan’ deployed which is acting as a ticking time bomb. The Shaheen Bagh, Delhi protests in 2019-20, sudden North-West Delhi February 2020 riots when US President Donald Trump was in city and su...