Pakistan observes and celebrates Independence Day on August 14, a day before Indians celebrate their Independence this side of the Wagah. Jawaharlal Nehru called it “midnight tryst with destiny”, but when Partition was accomplished, millions had died, slaughtered, on both sides.

Mahatma Gandhi, who is often blamed by some for the birth of Pakistan, had to sit on silent protest, satyagraha, and if he averted further killings, it’s an opinion. There are two sides to the coin, and one is being pushed out by another relatively newer, radically different.

Now, for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resurrect the horrors of Partition is a “masterstroke” that requires a special kind of mindset to conjure. Modi has with one tweet made us remember that at the end of the day we’re all frail humans; that we like, or we think we like, to be pitied, we are most happily unhappy when we feel pity for ourselves.

There is nothing brave about remembering horrors. The “Pain of Partition” says the story, directly quoting Modi, “underscoring the pain”. Henceforth when Pakistan celebrates we in India will remember the “horrors” of Pakistan’s birth, frustrated Indians.

Mind you, the newly renamed “Pakistani” also endured Partition. He too was the product of a divided mindset. The “horrors” of that event no less traumatic to the Muslims of Pakistan, than they were to the Hindus and Sikhs of the India of the time.

Now, 75 years after, Modi is being celebrated by his acolytes for being the “genius” in the locker room. One fellow said “this is the vision required and which was lacking for 70 years”, to which another retorted “his jumla to divert attention”. A third asked “how can we remember things we haven’t experienced”?

That’s right, India’s predominantly youth population wouldn’t have Partition horrors to recount. And those who did have them rarely told them, rarely beat their breasts remembering them. To them Partition was an experience best left unremembered.

None of those who survived Partition with wounds, or wounded pride, chose to remember the horrors they experienced as they fled to safer places. “Why not forget the horrors?” was the prevailing mood as people sought to rebuild lives in a land which was not the land of their birth.

Those were tough days, the Partition aftermath. And the stout warriors of the time, the “people of Partition”, chose to put behind the tragedy that visited them, which left them battered and bloody, emotionally drained and physically strained, they strove to fight the odds stacked against them.

It was not a film in black & white which required a date to be released. While the new nascent government of the day helped millions to rebuild home and hearth, and careers, tens of thousands others did the honours themselves. And of these scores became solid enterprising citizens, like the Phoenix they rose from the ashes!

Those “success stories’ are very much part of the Partition saga. Countries have been born and have died throughout history. Right now, even as we mull the consequences of a “Horrors Remembrance Day”, just a country away from India, horrors are being played out by a regime-reborn!

Modi tweeted: "Partition's pains can never be forgotten. Millions of our sisters and brothers were displaced and many lost their lives due to mindless hate and violence. In memory of the struggles and sacrifices of our people, 14th August will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day."

Modi is naïve. He believes “remembering the day will serve as a reminder to keep the social divisions at bay and strengthen the spirit of oneness”. Bull. Modi served himself what he thinks is a winner, an electoral javelin that will win him Gold in the electoral Olympics slated for 2022, 2023 and 2024. If anything "Horrors Remembrance Day" has only sharpened the division. Maybe that's the purpose of the Day. (IPA Service)