The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
WATCH the video of Donald Trump’s visit to Agra and freeze the frame where the publicly anti-Muslim chief minister of Uttar Pradesh is seen presenting the US president with a framed picture of the Taj Mahal. Yogi Adityanath, whose open targeting of Indian Muslims has spearheaded Hindutva’s political march was presenting a celebrated Mughal relic to a fellow racial bigot. Hatred can be an opportunistic tool, of course, but Adityanath had put on a needless charade for a visitor who in any case didn’t care.
Cut to a recent online summit between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. India and Uzbekistan shared “civilisation and historic ties”, a readout of the talks said last week. It’s true that Uzbekistan, like Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey and other Central Asian countries, has had extremely close cultural links with India. What is difficult to figure out is the reason for a sectarian pri