Shrinking breathing space
SINCE its establishment, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — the political wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is making all out efforts to use anti-Muslim card for creating Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation).
The rampant use of hate speech, blasphemous comments, and violence against Muslims and other minority communities has not only shrunk the breathing space for minorities in India but also exposed the real face of the so-called secular state to the world community.
The recent move of blasphemous comments of the BJP leadership had not only fuelled polarization, triggered cases of violence in India but also invited collective and aggressive response from the Muslim Ummah.
The BJP-led government has systematically paved the way for genocide of the minority groups.
In December 2021 numerous far-right Hindu leaders openly called for genocide against Muslims at a three-day religious summit held in northern India’s Haridwar city.
The Genocide Watch, a global watchdog for crimes against humanity in 2022 predicted an existential threat to Muslim genocide in India.
And as per Dr Gregory Stanton, the head of the Genocide Watch, India under the BJP leadership was following the ‘Myanmar Model’, where Rohingyian Muslims were legally declared non-citizens and forcibly expelled from their lands through state-sponsored vehemence and organized genocide.
The Sang Parivaar that comprised of BJP, Bajrang Dal, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Akhil BharatiyaVidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) have led various campaigns against the minorities’ rights in India: demolition of Babri Mosque, Christian Churches and Missionaries and Hinduization of the education system.
Under the BJP government, the Indian textbooks were revised — all references of the minorities’ contributions to the Indian history were omitted while the RSS’ anti-Muslim vision was presented as the only historic fact.
Moreover, numerous anti-Muslim laws and policies were passed and proposed in several states of the country.
But the real face of the current Indian government has been exposed when it adapted Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizenship (NRC) that legally describes Muslim residents of India as ‘aliens.
The Modi Government is utilizing both direct as well as indirect coercive means to make it impossible for the Muslim to live freely in India.
The large of recently reported incidents against the minorities in India had clearly indicated that the breathing space for the minorities is shrinking at a higher pace.
The country has become a dominant Hindu state where only and only Hindus have been given due respect and protection.
Thus the situation has made the future of all minority groups (Muslims, Christians and Sikhs) quite bleak in the so-called world’s largest democracy.
Under the state sponsored moves, minorities, especially, Muslims have been targeted with numerous hate campaigns like Ghar Wapsi, Love Jihad, cow vigilantes and ban on beef slaughtering, Bulli Bai app and Banning hijab to harass Muslim women.
The demolition of Muslim owned properties through bulldozers was electorally rewarded in UP, the other parts of India are also following the suite.
The bulldozers are considered as BJP’s new weapon against Muslims.The rise of Islamophobia and plight of minorities is also noticed by international community.
The recent ‘2021 International Religious Freedom Report” released on 2nd June by the US State Department indicates that Indian atrocities against the minorities are also being monitored and registered.
According to the report, attacks on religious minority communities, including killings, assaults, and intimidation, occurred throughout 2021 in India.
While as per United Christian Forum (UCF), within a year from 2020 to 2021, the attacks on the Christians have been increased from 279 to 486.
Many international newspapers/channels have also pinpointed the overtly hostile policies/attitude of the BJP government towards minorities, especially against Muslims.
It is widely believed that it is no longer safe to be a Muslim in BJP’s India especially Muslim women who are often humiliated and harassed just because of being Muslim.
Currently, India is facing an international condemnation over Islamophobic comments against the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by two BJP staffers.
In order to mitigate the diplomatic row, the Indian embassy in Doha released a statement insisting that the comments were made by “fringe elements” and “do not, represent Indian government’s official stance.
However, while keeping in view of past record of BJP leadership against Muslims, this stance was not broadly accepted.
To ensure the stoppage of such incidents in future, the international community, especially Biden administration must urge the Indian government to transparently investigate the incidents of widespread violence against minorities, particularly Muslims, and their worship places.
International human rights organizations should also take the notice of the propagation of Hindutva ideology (convert India into a purely Hindu state with no rights or space for any other religion) by BJP leadership.
Keeping in view the mounting Islamophobia in India and deteriorating plight of minorities in India, it is the need of the time that international community especially UK government to include the rising Islamophobia and plight of Indian minorities in the upcoming “International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief: London 2022” to be held in UK on 5-6 July 2022, as the implications of the BJP’s burgeoning anti-Muslim rhetoric are grave, if unimpeded, it will fuel further religious discrimination and alienation of Muslims as well as other minorities living in India.
—The author is holding MPhil degree in Strategic and Nuclear Studies.
