Indian Muslim Council
Appalled by APPNA’s Award to Advani
New York, NY: The Indian Muslim Council-USA,
a grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to the promotion
of pluralism in India and the US, has expressed its shock
and dismay over media reports that a delegation of Pakistani
physicians has honored the Hindutva-fascist leader LK Advani
with an award for "promoting peace and harmony".
The delegation comprised of members of the Association of
Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA).
Advani leads the hard-line wing of Hindutva, a supremacist
movement founded on the model of Mussolini's Fascist party
and many of its leaders and pioneers regard Hitler as one
of their heroes.
An IMC statement released to the media said: “Advani
led the movement that demolished the famous Babri Mosque and
was instrumental in creating conditions that caused wholesale
massacres of Muslims all over India in 1992. Under Mr. Advani's
tenure as a Home Minister, over 2,000 Muslims were massacred,
hundreds of women were raped and more than 150,000 were ethnically
cleansed in the Gujarat pogroms of 2002. Narendra Modi, a
political protégé of Advani and Gujarat state
chief minister, is widely blamed for orchestrating this violence.
Advani allowed these massacres to continue by refusing to
dismiss the Gujarat state government during the violence despite
calls from all quarters to do so and the constitutional provisions
requiring such a measure. The pogroms lasted for over three
months. To date, not a single person has been brought to justice.
Indian Christians have also been targeted for murder, rapes
and discrimination by the Hindutva parties.
”On the India-Pakistan peace front, Advani repeatedly
called for settling scores by waging a fourth war with Pakistan.
He is on record stating ‘let us fight it out face to
face. We have fought thrice, let there be a fourth war’.
Most hard-line Hindutva followers dream of annexing all the
countries in South Asia and creating a greater India or ‘Akkhand
Bharat.’
”Hindutva parties have infiltrated the US power centers
and are in the forefront of anti-Islamic propaganda in the
US, especially in Washington DC. Their websites such as http://www.hinduunity.org
spew venom against Muslims, Christians and Hindus who do not
agree with their Hindutva ideology.
”A wide spectrum of rights organizations successfully
campaigned against the visit of Narendra Modi to the US which
led to the US State Department revoking his visas and imposing
a ban on him for his role in the Gujarat genocide. Mr. Advani
continued to defend Modi after his visa revocation and led
a rally that denounced the United States. He is on record
defending Modi as an ‘efficient’ Chief Minister
when controversy erupted on Modi's role in the Gujarat violence.
”Media reports mention that the meeting to honor Advani
was planned through the Pakistani wing of the family of Najma
Heptullah a BJP leader. The pluralist-minded Indians consider
Heptullah to be a political opportunist without any regard
for the representation of India's Muslim community.
”IMC-USA has been in the forefront of bringing different
religious and ethnic groups together and in fostering religious
tolerance. IMC-USA hopes and works for a peaceful India, peaceful
South Asia and a peaceful world. Realization of this hope
is only possible when pogrom mongers and supremacist leaders
such as Advani and Modi are brought to justice and their ideology
marginalized.”
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