He gave Indians a motto Bharat jodo – knit India. He died a few months ago. His message will live for ever.
There are three other Maharashtrians: Bal Thackeray, his son Uddhav and his nephew Raj. They have spent their lives in preaching hate against non-Maharashtrians who live in Maharashtra and compelled many thousands to flee, from the State. Their motto could be Bharat todo — split India. They are also Indians. I hope their message will die long before they do.

There was a Gujarati named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He spent his life in teaching Indians that they were one people. He went out of his way to reassure Muslims who suffered from a sense of alienation that they had nothing to fear from the Hindus: both Hindus and Muslims were sons of Mother India. The man who murdered Gandhi was also an Indian.

There is another Gujarati named Narendra Modi who has been a successful Chief Minister of Gujarat. He does not share Gandhi’s views about Muslims and feels that they have been too uppish in recent times and should be shown their place. So there were anti-Muslim riots in which thousands of innocent Muslims were killed and many thousands fled from Gujarat, those who stayed on live in fear of their lives.

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