Chakar The Great
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Although it appears that Pakistan is perpetually portrayed as a hotbed for violence against minorities, it is ironically India that fits this bill more aptly. According to research conducted by Pew, India was the fourth most religiously intolerant country in the world. Pew further stated that government constraints on religion and social hostilities related to religion have increased since 2015. Pakistan, as well as the rest of the world, must become cognizant of the rather ominous caveat that under the nationalistic BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and its ties with various Hindutva groups, India has become actively engaged in oppressing its minorities.
‘Hindutva’ is a fringe ideology based on Hindu nationalism and its main facets include (but are not limited to) the belief that the entirety of the subcontinent is the homeland of Hindus and “Hindus” are only those people who accept India as their holy and fatherland. The BJP is known for its connexions with a plethora of Hindutva groups. The most notable or rather infamous of these include the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Sangh Parivar (SP). The RSS is widely viewed as the parent organization of the ruling BJP and from this troubling fact can its sphere of influence be ascertained – not to mention that Modi himself is a lifelong member of the group.
Love Jihad is an alleged campaign driven by Muslim men that focuses on feigning love to convert Hindu women to Islam. Although there is no official evidence to back these claims, this has not stopped the plethora of active Hindutva groups that have found reinvigoration since Modi took office. Outfits like Hindu Yuva Vahini, Bajrang Dal, and others are actively disseminating propaganda that Muslim men are using love to convert Hindu women (minority rights violations, 2017). To put a stop to these conversions, the extremist groups sometimes threaten the woman’s family and in other cases threaten to kill the couple themselves.
Although Love Jihad is not a new phenomenon, it has gained momentum after Modi became prime minister – the term has also become a buzzword in India’s social media circles. There have been cases on social networks like Facebook and WhatsApp, where messages surface naming the Hindu women being “trapped” as well as their Muslim partners. These messages also encourage “true” Hindu’s to locate the men and take matters into their own hands.
Indian security forces killed over 90 Kashmiris (minority rights, 2017), injured over 15,000 (many were blinded due to pellet guns) and put Kashmir into its longest-ever curfew.
Unfortunately, Modi’s government has not done nearly enough to combat these kinds of campaigns and is instead involved, sometimes actively and at others passively, in promoting such extremist collusions in a so-called tolerant India. Modi’s own ministers have strikingly taken a downright insidious tone against Muslims in India and Pakistan. In India’s most populated state, Uttar Pradesh, Modi selected an anti-Muslim far-right Hindu named Yogi Adityanath (founder of the militant Hindu youth organization, Hindu Yuva Vahini) as the chief minister – to the obvious dismay of Muslims.
Yogi is known for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and his organization has been a part of communal violence against Muslims in the past. The RSS-BJP leaders also continue to label their detractors as “Pro-Pakistan” or “anti-Indian”. A BJP M.P from Bihar threatened to send all opponents of Modi to Pakistan (minority rights, 2017), while Modi’s former minister for religious affairs, Najma Heptullah has publicly stated that Muslims are not a minority and that “This is not the ministry for Muslim affairs, this is ministry for minority affairs” when asked what she would do for Muslim rights.
Modi himself was the infamous chief minister of Gujarat because of his alleged complicity in the anti-Muslim riots in 2002 which ended with around 800 Muslims’ death. The Supreme Court eventually cleared Modi of any charges but this decision outraged many Muslims. In true democracies, such a heinous event unfolding under a political executive’s domain would result in the immediate resignation or termination of that political office regardless of his or her involvement in the event or not. Here instead the BJP promoted Modi through its ranks and supported him as their prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 elections.
With respect to Indian Occupied Kashmir, one need not look further than the current protests against India that initiated in 2016 and India’s abhorrent response that has further fuelled the fire of the protesters. In July 2016, mass protests erupted due to the killing of a popular freedom fighter by Indian forces. In response, the Indian security forces killed over 90 Kashmiris (minority rights, 2017), injured over 15,000 (many were blinded due to pellet guns) and put Kashmir into its longest-ever curfew.
Numerous human rights groups have also lambasted the Indian government for not giving them access to Jammu and Kashmir to investigate the humanitarian atrocities being conducted.
Draconian laws such as the Armed Forces (Special Protection) Act (AFSPA) are still enforced in the region although there have been many international calls on its elimination. The AFSPA gives widespread discretionary powers to security forces such as shoot to kill, right to arrest without a warrant, right to raid houses and so on – furthermore, if all this was not appalling enough, the AFSPA also grants security forces impunity from civilian prosecution (minority rights violations in India, 2017).
Modi’s intentions further became transparent when he nominated a controversial far-right politician to become an M.P. Dr. Swamy has made his disdain for Muslims very obvious as in 2017 he tweeted that Kashmir should be “depopulated” of its Muslims who should be sent to south India as refugees (minority rights violations, 2017). The persecution of the Kashmiri people has tragically deepened since Modi has taken control of India. Although many were optimistic when the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and BJP became coalition partners in Jammu and Kashmir’s government, this optimism soon dissipated.
Currently, the Kashmiri protests have a real danger of escalating into an armed militancy if the Indian government continues with its political-military status quo (Mohanty, 2018). As already stated, the BJP government is also attempting to abrogate article 370 of the Indian constitution that gives special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir. Modi’s government has also placed Kashmir under a media blackout by shutting off internet and phone services intermittently so that civilians cannot communicate the horrors they are forced to face with the rest of the world (change.org). Moreover, there was even a ban on the newspaper, Kashmir Reader, which was overturned after almost three months.
The BJP also discontinued their collation with the PDP in June 2018, which has since placed Jammu and Kashmir under the direct rule of the central government (Chandran, CNBC, 2018). This move emboldens the BJP and its hardliner approach in the region since the PDP is not present to moderate the party any longer. India’s barbaric response to its own “citizens” has driven away even moderate Kashmiris – soldiers barge in homes, cut off roads, use live ammunition when protests erupt killing or blinding innocents including children (Genttleman, NYTimes, 2018).
It is extremely heartbreaking that this label is more oratorical than pragmatic – this, unfortunately, has always been true for India but perhaps never truer than the present.
In 2018, the United Nations accused the Indian government of using excessive force in Kashmir since 2016 and called for an international inquiry into human rights violations (nebehay, Reuters, 2018) but India has rejected this report by the U.N. Numerous human rights groups have also lambasted the Indian government for not giving them access to Jammu and Kashmir to investigate the humanitarian atrocities being conducted. The BJP run India’s tyrannical actions have resulted in protests grew in size and number, but the armed militancy aspect remains abated since Pakistan has reduced support to militants (Gettleman, NYTimes, 2018).
Despite Pakistan’s clampdown on supporting proxy groups in the region since 9/11, India continues to admonish Pakistan with countless faux allegations of cross-border terrorism on all forums – bilateral, regional and international. India must cease its mentality of denial and contemplate that it is their own policies of disillusionment that is undermining millions of people. It must be clarified here that India has never truly realized “secular” status that its constitution so proudly asserts even when it was under the so-called secular and diversity-oriented Congress party.
The country has a deep-rooted legacy of socio-economic marginalization of minorities and castes, religious-based communal rioting, and lack of political voice for the disenfranchised whether the ruling party was the Congress or the BJP. However, under the current BJP’s tenure, these anachronistic and illegal activities have proliferated and become more pronounced. For a country that derives abundant pleasure from being the world’s largest democracy, it is extremely heartbreaking that this label is more oratorical than pragmatic – this, unfortunately, has always been true for India but perhaps never truer than the present.
https://www.globalvillagespace.com/...utva-state-under-bjp-patronage-sarmad-ishfaq/
‘Hindutva’ is a fringe ideology based on Hindu nationalism and its main facets include (but are not limited to) the belief that the entirety of the subcontinent is the homeland of Hindus and “Hindus” are only those people who accept India as their holy and fatherland. The BJP is known for its connexions with a plethora of Hindutva groups. The most notable or rather infamous of these include the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Sangh Parivar (SP). The RSS is widely viewed as the parent organization of the ruling BJP and from this troubling fact can its sphere of influence be ascertained – not to mention that Modi himself is a lifelong member of the group.
Love Jihad is an alleged campaign driven by Muslim men that focuses on feigning love to convert Hindu women to Islam. Although there is no official evidence to back these claims, this has not stopped the plethora of active Hindutva groups that have found reinvigoration since Modi took office. Outfits like Hindu Yuva Vahini, Bajrang Dal, and others are actively disseminating propaganda that Muslim men are using love to convert Hindu women (minority rights violations, 2017). To put a stop to these conversions, the extremist groups sometimes threaten the woman’s family and in other cases threaten to kill the couple themselves.
Although Love Jihad is not a new phenomenon, it has gained momentum after Modi became prime minister – the term has also become a buzzword in India’s social media circles. There have been cases on social networks like Facebook and WhatsApp, where messages surface naming the Hindu women being “trapped” as well as their Muslim partners. These messages also encourage “true” Hindu’s to locate the men and take matters into their own hands.
Indian security forces killed over 90 Kashmiris (minority rights, 2017), injured over 15,000 (many were blinded due to pellet guns) and put Kashmir into its longest-ever curfew.
Unfortunately, Modi’s government has not done nearly enough to combat these kinds of campaigns and is instead involved, sometimes actively and at others passively, in promoting such extremist collusions in a so-called tolerant India. Modi’s own ministers have strikingly taken a downright insidious tone against Muslims in India and Pakistan. In India’s most populated state, Uttar Pradesh, Modi selected an anti-Muslim far-right Hindu named Yogi Adityanath (founder of the militant Hindu youth organization, Hindu Yuva Vahini) as the chief minister – to the obvious dismay of Muslims.
Yogi is known for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and his organization has been a part of communal violence against Muslims in the past. The RSS-BJP leaders also continue to label their detractors as “Pro-Pakistan” or “anti-Indian”. A BJP M.P from Bihar threatened to send all opponents of Modi to Pakistan (minority rights, 2017), while Modi’s former minister for religious affairs, Najma Heptullah has publicly stated that Muslims are not a minority and that “This is not the ministry for Muslim affairs, this is ministry for minority affairs” when asked what she would do for Muslim rights.
Modi himself was the infamous chief minister of Gujarat because of his alleged complicity in the anti-Muslim riots in 2002 which ended with around 800 Muslims’ death. The Supreme Court eventually cleared Modi of any charges but this decision outraged many Muslims. In true democracies, such a heinous event unfolding under a political executive’s domain would result in the immediate resignation or termination of that political office regardless of his or her involvement in the event or not. Here instead the BJP promoted Modi through its ranks and supported him as their prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 elections.
With respect to Indian Occupied Kashmir, one need not look further than the current protests against India that initiated in 2016 and India’s abhorrent response that has further fuelled the fire of the protesters. In July 2016, mass protests erupted due to the killing of a popular freedom fighter by Indian forces. In response, the Indian security forces killed over 90 Kashmiris (minority rights, 2017), injured over 15,000 (many were blinded due to pellet guns) and put Kashmir into its longest-ever curfew.
Numerous human rights groups have also lambasted the Indian government for not giving them access to Jammu and Kashmir to investigate the humanitarian atrocities being conducted.
Draconian laws such as the Armed Forces (Special Protection) Act (AFSPA) are still enforced in the region although there have been many international calls on its elimination. The AFSPA gives widespread discretionary powers to security forces such as shoot to kill, right to arrest without a warrant, right to raid houses and so on – furthermore, if all this was not appalling enough, the AFSPA also grants security forces impunity from civilian prosecution (minority rights violations in India, 2017).
Modi’s intentions further became transparent when he nominated a controversial far-right politician to become an M.P. Dr. Swamy has made his disdain for Muslims very obvious as in 2017 he tweeted that Kashmir should be “depopulated” of its Muslims who should be sent to south India as refugees (minority rights violations, 2017). The persecution of the Kashmiri people has tragically deepened since Modi has taken control of India. Although many were optimistic when the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and BJP became coalition partners in Jammu and Kashmir’s government, this optimism soon dissipated.
Currently, the Kashmiri protests have a real danger of escalating into an armed militancy if the Indian government continues with its political-military status quo (Mohanty, 2018). As already stated, the BJP government is also attempting to abrogate article 370 of the Indian constitution that gives special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir. Modi’s government has also placed Kashmir under a media blackout by shutting off internet and phone services intermittently so that civilians cannot communicate the horrors they are forced to face with the rest of the world (change.org). Moreover, there was even a ban on the newspaper, Kashmir Reader, which was overturned after almost three months.
The BJP also discontinued their collation with the PDP in June 2018, which has since placed Jammu and Kashmir under the direct rule of the central government (Chandran, CNBC, 2018). This move emboldens the BJP and its hardliner approach in the region since the PDP is not present to moderate the party any longer. India’s barbaric response to its own “citizens” has driven away even moderate Kashmiris – soldiers barge in homes, cut off roads, use live ammunition when protests erupt killing or blinding innocents including children (Genttleman, NYTimes, 2018).
It is extremely heartbreaking that this label is more oratorical than pragmatic – this, unfortunately, has always been true for India but perhaps never truer than the present.
In 2018, the United Nations accused the Indian government of using excessive force in Kashmir since 2016 and called for an international inquiry into human rights violations (nebehay, Reuters, 2018) but India has rejected this report by the U.N. Numerous human rights groups have also lambasted the Indian government for not giving them access to Jammu and Kashmir to investigate the humanitarian atrocities being conducted. The BJP run India’s tyrannical actions have resulted in protests grew in size and number, but the armed militancy aspect remains abated since Pakistan has reduced support to militants (Gettleman, NYTimes, 2018).
Despite Pakistan’s clampdown on supporting proxy groups in the region since 9/11, India continues to admonish Pakistan with countless faux allegations of cross-border terrorism on all forums – bilateral, regional and international. India must cease its mentality of denial and contemplate that it is their own policies of disillusionment that is undermining millions of people. It must be clarified here that India has never truly realized “secular” status that its constitution so proudly asserts even when it was under the so-called secular and diversity-oriented Congress party.
The country has a deep-rooted legacy of socio-economic marginalization of minorities and castes, religious-based communal rioting, and lack of political voice for the disenfranchised whether the ruling party was the Congress or the BJP. However, under the current BJP’s tenure, these anachronistic and illegal activities have proliferated and become more pronounced. For a country that derives abundant pleasure from being the world’s largest democracy, it is extremely heartbreaking that this label is more oratorical than pragmatic – this, unfortunately, has always been true for India but perhaps never truer than the present.
https://www.globalvillagespace.com/...utva-state-under-bjp-patronage-sarmad-ishfaq/
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