NEW DELHI – Indian leaders might resort to the option of a war with Pakistan and the nuclear deterrence will not bar the leaders, an Indian judge-turned columnist has predicted.
In his latest piece, the former Supreme Court judge, Markandey Katju has dished in on the scenario that is developing after the defeat of Bharatiya Janata Party in heartland states, dropping hints of dark days ahead.
“Also, a war with Pakistan on some issue is bound to whip up communal passions, and our leaders may well resort to that option too. The fact that both countries have nuclear weapons will not deter desperate men,” Katju wrote.
Markandey Katju, who retired in 2011, stated that India was bound to witness widespread communal riots and incidents in the coming months.
The former judge commented: “BJP thrives on communal riots, for that is the only way the party knows for increasing its votes from its ‘captive’ upper caste Hindu vote bank, which, at 20 per cent of the population, is clearly insufficient to win many seats.”
Painting a bleak picture for India, the writer continued that BJP will not give up power easily, and the coming Lok Sabha elections will be like the historical wars for the Delhi Sultanate ‘in which no holds were barred and rivers of blood flowed as rivals sought to claim the throne’.
Katju also expressed a mistrust in the entire political class of the country, taking on the chin, the electoral process currently underway.
“So whether Congress wins elections or BJP wins, it matters little. Our politicians have no genuine love for the country, but are only interested in power and self,” he wrote in The Week In.
He opined that the only effect the assembly election results will have is to reduce lynching of Muslims a bit saying, it was wrong to assume that such incidents will be totally eliminated.
“India is still a semi-feudal society, and as I have repeatedly pointed out, communalism is always latent in it, only awaiting some catalyst to bring it to the surface,” stated Katju.
He continued that today, most Hindus in India were communal, and so are most Muslims, stressing the need for a fully industrial society to tackle the ‘poison of communalism’.
