Aakar Patel is no stranger to controversies. The ex-Chief of Amnesty India has many FIRs to his name and has been known to be a Modi hater since a long time. His vitriolic comments against Modi and BJP have led many people to believe that his actual name is Aakar Ahmed Patel, though this is not true. By the looks of his recent tweets, now Aakar Patel wants separate electorate for Muslims in Bharat and has justified the actions of Jinnah and specially his “two nation theory” that led to partion of Bharat. This is not the first time, he has expressed such views.

Muslims should push for reserved seats or separate electorates. Hindu Rashtra will not concede rights.

— Aakar Patel (@Aakar__Patel) August 9, 2020

Partition happened because Congress rejected legitimate demand of Muslims for proportional representation. Independent India shows Muslims (Jinnah) absolutely right.

— Aakar Patel (@Aakar__Patel) August 9, 2020

Separate electorates for Muslims

The issue of separate electorate for minority Muslims was first raised in early 20th century. In 1906, Nawab Muhsin ul Mulk, a Muslim elite from UP, was the founder member of Muslim League and also drafted the constitution of the party. On his initiative, a deputation of Muslims met Lord Minto, the then Viceroy in Simla in October, 1906. The principle demand was “separate electorates for Muslims”. The demand was granted in Government of India Act of 1909, also called Morley- Minto reforms.

In separate electorates, seats were reserved for Muslims in legislatures and in those seats only Muslims had the right to vote for Muslim candidates.  The implication was that Muslims and their interests could only be protected by Muslims. Separate representation for Muslims also fitted within British policy of “divide and rule”. The separate electorates reinforced the idea that Muslims and Hindus were “two nations” that could not live in one country.

Congress party, which originally opposed this, accepted this system under the Lucknow Pact of 1916. This was probably the blunder of the century. A Pakistani commentator writes : “The Muslims were firm In their demand for separate electorate since 1906; no doubt, Pakistan would not have emerged without this system of elections. Therefore this clause of the Lucknow Pact has a historical significance.”

Separate electorates to separate nation : just one step

That the separate electorate eventually leads to separate nation was almost universally accepted by the Constituent Assembly of Bharat. The leaders such as Patel, Nehru and Tajamul Husain accepted that separate electorates were the root of two nation theory. The only supporters for separate electorates in the Constituent Assembly were those members of Muslim League, who had remained in Bharat. This included Muhammad Ismail of Madras, who founded the IUML of Kerala, Sir Muhammad Saadulah of Assam and Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman of UP. Out of these Khaliquzzaman eventually went to Pakistan.

Clearly, the leaders of Muslim League, who remained in Bharat were influenced by the two nation theory. They had chosen Pakistan but were forced to remain in Bharat due to circumstances. It must be remembered that in the elections of 1946, Muslim league had won 87% of Muslim seats and 100% seats in places like Madras, Orissa/Odisha and Bombay. The only place, Muslim league did not won majority of Muslim seats was in Khyber Pakhtunwa or NWFP.

The election of 1946 was fought on the issue of two-nation theory. Clearly, a large majority of Muslims did not wish to remain in Bharat. Anyways, after partition, these same people have the gall to say that : “We chose Bharat”. Of course very few, if any, Muslims from Orissa/Odisha and Madras moved to Pakistan. Many of their  intellectual descendants apparently dream of another partition.

The separate electorates for Muslims created incentive for Muslim politicians to be more extremist than the other competitors. The most extremist people, who wanted partition, won the elections. The trend has continued in Pakistan with more extremist parties coming to power one after another. Imran Khan has been long known as a “Taliban without beard” in Pakistan. Interestingly, separate electorates for Hindus have continued in Pakistan. How much these helped Hindus is for all to see. Maybe Aakar Patel wants Bharat’s Muslims to be in a condition like Pakistan’s Hindus!

Marxist support for partition

It must be remembered that apart from Muslim League, the biggest supporters of partition of Bharat were Marxists. They provided the intellectual defence of the idea of Pakistan in the Gangadhar Adhikari thesis. This document, which supported partition of Bharat in dozens of small countries on basis of language and ethnicity was adopted by the Communist Party of Bharat. It is no wonder that Communists are at the forefront of creating division within the country.

Aakar Patel is part of the same Marxist- Congress ecosystem that detests Bharat and Hindu Dharma. It is unthinkable that he does not know what separate electorate means. Communist historians like Bipan Chandra have discussed the issue in great detail and have shown how separate electorate led to Muslim communalism and ultimately partition of Bharat.

Conclusion

Aakar Patel’s statement, specially his support for Jinnah is a direct endorsement of two nation theory. It must be remembered that he had recently supported riots and unrest in Bharat and Twitter had to suspend him for this reason. His support for separate electorates has the same goal, from a different angle.

The members of Constituent Assembly agreed that minority communities can live peacefully only on the goodwill of majority community in the country. The goodwill of Hindus has seen Muslim population in Bharat rise from 9.8% in 1951 to around 15% today. Bharat has already seen one partition on the basis of religion. The preface of the second partition is being written by the likes of Aakar in connivance with radical Islamists. To save the country from another partition, it is time that they are exposed and dealt with an iron hand.

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