> I’m an independent person; I’m apolitical. We want to unify India.
I've started noticing more in the world how sometimes, people promote their stances as "apolitical", "independent", or somehow outside of politics. This has the powerful effect of implying that those stances are natural and un-opposable.
If you want to advocate some policy or cause you first establish your independence to imply non-biased consideration.
If you want to criticize some policy or group you first establish that you were previously an advocate of that policy or group, or currently still are part of that group, implying that the criticism is so undeniable that even someone predisposed to bias and self-interest can't reject it.
We all do this. For example, "I actually like Rust and use it daily, BUT...."