How was Congress from the very beginning engaged in making India a Muslim nation?

Pakistani ex-President Gen. Parvez Musharraf was born in an old Delhi havelli and migrated to Pakistan with family during the partition. These vacated old Delhi houses were not given to Hindu and Sikh Pakistani refugees from west Punjab and kept vacant for some time with the hope original occupants who migrated to Pakistan will one day claim these properties. Similarly, MA Jinnah’s palatial house in Mumbai was not taken over by Indian government. Hindu and Sikh Pakistani refugees from west Punjab were settled in completely newly built refugee colonies called Lajpat Nagar, Malviya Nagr, Punjabi Bagh and Tilak Nagar etc. on the outskirts of Delhi city. These places were far away from city centre and in early 1950s and they completely lacked basic civic amenities. Hence these refugees had to struggle a lot for more than a decade to rebuild their lives. Those refugee’s hard struggle made these residential colonies in south/south west Delhi prosperous residential colonies today after 7 decades.

PM Nehru and education minister Maulana Azad never allowed Hindu and Sikh refugees from west Punjab to occupy these vacant houses in old Delhi and a pro-Musl!m bias stared. These refuges were temporarily placed in refugee camps setup in historic monuments like Old Fort and later allocated small plots in locations mentioned above.

Old Fort, Delhi refugee camp 1948

As the government started marking out old monuments of the city (mainly in south Delhi areas like Hauz Khas) to make space for refugees, a Qila (fort) in Khirki village in south Delhi was considered as a refugee camp just like Purana Qila (Old Fort). Nehru government had appointed Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first minister of education in the Indian government, to visit the village and examine if Khirki Qila was indeed constructed a mosque in 14th century. Villagers explained to Azad that this has been a masjid for centuries, even though no prayers are held here and no Musl!ms live in the village. The government decided to drop the plan of resettling refugees in that mosque complex. The structure was remained neglected for decades and slowly became a den for drug addicts before it was restored by ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) before 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

There are similar stories that Hindu and Sikh refugees badly treated by Nehru government. Many Sikh refugees were settled in UP districts like Lakhimpur Kheri which is far away from Punjab. Welfare of Musl!m minority was always high priority for Nehru and Maulana Azad as Musl!ms were insecure and scared to live in secular India.

After the Pakistani attack on Kashmir, behind the veils of tribal raiders, instead of rebuking the Pakistani Prime Minister and demanding the part of Kashmir that Pakistan had taken forcibly and illegally, Nehru wrote to him as if stung with a guilt conscience: “I have repeatedly stated that as soon as peace and order have been established, Kashmir should decide on accession by plebiscite or referendum under international auspices such as those of United Nations” (November 21, 1947). Nehru’s Home Minister was much more decisive in throwing out Pakistani raiders using Army and this led bitterness between them to an extent that Sardar Patel almost resigned (Sardar Patel’s letter, drafted but not implemented, as he was finally persuaded to take his resignation back). Nehru being a Kashmiri, had so much soft corner for Kashmir that he failed to take strong decision as region was Musl!m majority. Sardar Patel and President Rajdendra Prasad’s initiative to revive demolished Somnath temple of Gujarat also angered PM Nehru as he considered it a violation of secularism and this may led to revival of Hindu fundamentalism. Nehru was not concerned about feeling of Hindu minority but more concerned about Musl!m minority who didn’t migrate to Pakistan.

Nehru’s first civil supply Minister, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, resigned from the Cabinet upon observing his deep-rooted apathy towards the woes of Hindu refugees especially in Bengal. Another Bengal MP, eminent scientist Dr. Meghnad Saha who became Planning Commission chairman, also criticized Nehru’s refugee settlement bias. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee wanted Kashmir’s accession to be complete and total without any special Article 370. As the president of a newly formed Jana Sangh political party, Mookerjee went to J&K challenging the illegal permit system and with the slogan “One nation, one tricolour, one law and no to special permit system, two flags, two constitutions for J&K”. He was treated as a political rival and criminal, and he died in custody under mysterious circumstances in Srinagar, where Sheikh Abdullah had put him under house arrest. Nehru refused to institute an inquiry. Dr. Mookerjee’s younger brother Uma Prasad Mookerjee made a press conference that his brother’s body became blue in color. Mookerjee’s mother, Jogmaya Devi, wrote several letters to Nehru demanding a judicial inquiry but Nehru did not respond. The entire nation saw foul play in Mookerjee’s death. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then a journalist, said: “It’s murder most foul, hatched under a Nehru-Abdullah duo.” Mookerjee’s tragic death and Nehru’s insensitivity compelled Vajapyee to join his party Jana Sangh.

Why Nehru disliked Mookerjee so much? Was it just a political rivalry? The real reason is Nehru and other congressmen was strongly against Hindu Mahasabha which became Jana Sangh under Mookerjee’s leadership. On the advice of Gandhiji, Nehru accepted non-congress eminent people Dr. Mookerjee (civil supply minister), Dr. BR Ambedkar (law minister) and RK Shanmukhan Chetty (finance minister) despite all congressmen were against them. All three had fallout with Nehru and congress in short span of time. Mookerjee told Nehru that there could not be two Constitutions, two Flags and two PMs in one country. He also wanted a uniform civil code which Nehru opposed for his vote bank politics of Muslim appeasement. During Nehru’s era, there was no strong opposition parties and congress continued to rule centre and states even after Nehru era. So, there was no need of Musl!m appeasement that time but congress started this immediately after independence. Nehru’s foreign policy was also based, with ‘lofty moral posturing’ of non-alignment. Dr Mookerjee particularly lambasted Nehru on two of his grand mistakes - first, welcoming the Chinese annexation of Tibet and thereby removing this very important buffer state between the two great powers; and secondly, giving a long rope to Pakistan during the Kashmir war through his declaration of the unilateral ceasefire.

Nehru was upset with Sardar Patel on his decisive way (or ruthless way) of handling Hyderabad liberation (Operation Polo) but never had any concerns when Hyderabadi Razakars were ruthlessly killing Hindus. Nehru accepted Christian Naga tribe demand that no Hindu religious Sadhus will be allowed in Naga area and hence Hindu charity organisation do not operate there. Verier Elvin was a British-born anthropologist and ethnologist. He began his career as a Christi@n missionary here. Nehru appointed him as adviser on tribal affairs for Northeast India. Reports say Elvin converted to Hinduism later. I doubt it, for had he been a converted Hindu in true spirits, he would not have signed agreement with Nehru barring entry of sadhus in Nagaland. But yes, Christi@n conversion missionaries had access to enter.

The current Manipur crisis also has its root from Nehru’s pro-minority appeasement policies. Hindu Meitei which constitutes approximately 50% population of Manipur are confined to 10% area called the Manipur valley while rest 50% populations consists of Christi@n Naga and Kuki who lives in the hills surrounding Manipur valley have 90% area under their control. Moreover Hindu Meitei non-tribal population cannot buy land in tribal Kuki/Naga hills area which means they are boxed in 10% Manipur valley.

Rahul Gandhi goes to Manipur

Congress was anti-majority, pro-minority specially pro-Musl!m so that they feel safe in India. Congress knew from the beginning that Hindu majority may drift away from congress but not the minority, specially Musl!m minority.

Unfortunately, most Musl!ms in north India drifted to relgional parties which came up later like SP, BSP, RJD, JDU, TMC etc. as congressmen were responsible for many riots (Bhagalpur, Meerut, 1984 anti-Sikh riot etc.). Since riots didn’t happened in south-India, Musl!ms are still with congress. To show solidarity with minorities, congress is becoming ‘Muslim League’ of 21st century India with its appeasement policy.