Mumtaz Alam, IndiaTomorrow.net
New Delhi, Jan 10: In the present government of BJP at the centre, some attempts are being made to divide people in the name of religion, but they won’t succeed, said veteran journalist and former diplomat Kuldip Nayar at India Islamic Cultural Centre here on Sunday.
He was releasing India-Pakistan Peace Calendar prepared by Aaghaz-e-Dosti, a civil initiative of youths from both sides of the border to promote peace and people to people relations between the two countries.
“India has such strength and power to absorb jolts, has been doing so for centuries, doing it even today. It is wrong to divide India into Hindu and Muslim. Some people from both sides do some wrong but the common nature is that we should live together,” said Nayar.
“There are at least 20 crore Muslims here – some in towns and some others in villages. It is true some communal riots also take place but it is not true that people like communal riots. Only a few people are involved in such acts. People in general want to live peacefully,” he added.
Commenting on the hate campaign by some affiliates of Sangh Parivar for communal polarisation in the country, Nayar said:
“In this government (BJP government at the centre), some efforts are being made to divide people again but they can’t divide people in the name of religion because the Idea of India that we have inherited from Gandhi, Nehru and Maulana Azad is that religion has its place but we all are Indians and we are proud to be Indian first and then Muslim or Hindu.”
Aaghaz-e-Dosti
Talking to IndiaTomorrow.net, Ravi Nitesh, the brain behind Aaghaz-e-Dosti, which was launched in 2012, said: “Some anti-peace and anti-social people always make efforts to barricade attempts for peace and good relations. Whenever such peace attempts are made some unfortunate events take place.”
Ravi Nitesh
“But I am of the view that we should not come under the pressure of such bad events and stop our peace efforts. Rather, the most befitting reply to anti-peace attempts is to accelerate peace efforts. When dialogues for peace will resume such forces will disappear,” said Nitesh.
