Under Modi, India on Dangerous, Divisive and Self-Destructive Path

By Sajjad Shaukat

Since Narendar Modi, the fanatic leader of the extremist ruling party BJP, became Indian Prime Minister, he has been following the discarded tactics of Machiavelli in the modern era.

Under Modi’s regime, the BJP and other extremist parties started implementing Ideology of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism). Persecution of minorities has been intensified by the prejudiced Hindus.

On August 5, 2019, Modi-led government abrogated articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution, which gave a special status to the disputed territory of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). New Delhi bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to be ruled by the federal government. On the same day, strict military lockdown was imposed in the IIOJK which continues unabated.

And the deployment of more than 900,000 military troops in the IIOJK, who have martyred tens of thousands of the Kashmiris, including women and children through brutal tactics-fake encounters, while closure of mosques, shortage of foods, medicines for the patients have further increased the plight of the Kashmiris.

While, under a well-planned hidden agenda, Modi-led regime has intensified, bringing ethno- demographic changes in IIOJK. In this context, Indian various moves such as introduction of new laws, amendment of the laws to facilitate non-Kashmiris and outsiders in order to usurp the rights of the Muslim Kashmiris—issuance of domicile certificates to more than 800000 non-Kashmiris, registration of almost 2.5 million new non-local voters in the IIOJK—failure of fake drama to host G-20 summit on May 22-24, 2023 in the IIOJK, from time to time, violations of the Line of Control (LoC) by shelling inside Pakistanis side of Kashmir—in violation of the ceasefire agreement of 2003 might be cited as instance.

Recently, the unique peaceful protest was held in front of UN Headquarters Geneva, made by placing, standees’ posters and banners bearing details of Indian gross human rights violations. The depicted pictorial messages displayed persecution of Christians, state sponsored terror attacks on minorities, maltreatment of lower-caste Dalits including burning of Christian churches and religious preachers. The protest coincided during the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

In this respect, a disturbing video showing a group of men dragging a woman by her hair, brutally kicking and assaulting her with sticks, while she screams and cries surrounded by onlookers is going viral on social media platforms—the footage of the violent incident took place in Uttar Pradesh where a Dalit girl is being subjected to extreme violence,  taking place in an open field near a water body, on the charges of her bathing in the nearby water;  making the water impure/de-sanctifying it for upper class Hindus.

However, injustice directed at the Dalits cause profound trauma and suffering—stigma follows an individual from birth until death, affecting all aspects of life from education, housing, work, access to justice and political participation.

In this regard, Wikipedia writes: “The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Indian Tribes (SITs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designated in one or other of the categories. For much of the period of British rule in the Indian subcontinent, they were known as the Depressed Classes.  In modern literature, the Scheduled Castes are sometimes referred to as Dalit, meaning “broken” or “dispersed”.

Social scientists and Dalit activists say, “Dalits-formerly known as “untouchables” are still victim of thousands of attacks each year despite laws put in place…Dalits, as the lowest caste in the occupational hierarchy, have been assigned the most demeaning jobs, such as skinning dead animals or cleaning public toilets and sewers”.

Notably, Indian Constitution declares India to be a secular and democratic state, which safeguards the rights of religious minorities, but, under the Modi-led prejudiced government, discrimination against the Muslim and Christian communities has been accelerated by the extremist Hindus. Under his regime, various developments like unprecedented rise of Hindu extremism, persecution of religious minorities such as Muslims Christians, Sikhs etc., assaults on their places of worships and property—forced conversion of other religious minorities into Hindus, creation of war-like situation with Pakistan etc. have clearly proved that encouraged by the Hindu fundamentalist outfits such as BJP, RSS VHP, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena have been promoting religious and ethnic chauvinism in India by propagating the Hindutva ideology.

It is intimated that the OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) Complaints Procedure Branch has issued an official communication to New Delhi, and expressed concerned on information regarding the obstruction and discrimination against Muslim-Christian owned minorities’ businesses.

It pointed out that in March-April 2022; multiple calls by Hindu organizations were made to boycott Muslim and some Christian owned businesses in the states of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Especially, these calls for the economic boycott of Muslim minority have been supported by state representatives and respective state governments.

It is mentionable that some other discriminatory policies and moves against the Muslims such as the Indian Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA), passed by the Indian Parliament coupled with the National Register of Citizens (NRC)—mainly against the Muslim immigrants particularly from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan—In December 15, 2019, despite daily mass protests, across every state against the CAA and the NRC, which resulted into killing of more than 300 persons-mostly Muslims by the police and prejudiced Hindus, Modi-led regime has not withdrawn the CAA/NRC—assaults on Muslims, their shops, burning of their houses and recently on a mosque etc. might be cited as example.

In this connection, protests by members of the Muslim minority in response to the decision of the Karnataka High Court to uphold a governmental ban on Muslim girls, wearing the hijab in educational institutions are also notable.

It is of particular attention that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had said on October 8, 2019: “Bharat is Hindu Rashtra and all Bharatiyas are Hindus.”

At present, drastic situation against the Christians in the Indian state of Manipur and Muslims in the state of Hyrina is of particular attention.

In fact, under Modi’s fanatic government led by biased Hindu parties, India has become a fascist country. In this context, The New York Times wrote on August 9, 2023: “In Manipur, Christians are bearing the brunt as the state’s B.J.P. government stokes the insecurities of the majority ethnic Meitei, who are predominantly Hindu. State leaders have branded the Kuki tribes who populate are mostly Christian—have blamed them for poppy cultivation intended for the drug trade and evicted some of them from their forest habitats. The specific trigger for the current violence was a court ruling in the state in favor of granting the Meitei affirmative action provisions and other benefits that have long been enjoyed by the Kuki and other tribes, which sparked a protest by tribal communities opposed to the ruling. Emboldened by the state government’s rhetoric, Meitei militias in Manipur have gone on a rampage of raping, pillaging, looting police armories and burning villages. More than 250 churches have been burned down”.

Besides, Indian authorities imposed a curfew in various parts of northern Haryana state after the violence began on July 31, this year. Nonetheless, Manipur-like bloody game is being played by the biased Hindus against the Muslims. Recently, extremist Hindus have boycotted the Muslims and stop purchasing their products in Haryana.

Similarly, like other religious communities, Sikhs have experienced numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment and violence, largely at the hands of Hindu nationalist groups.

It is notable that the leading Sikh leader of the Khalistan’s movement Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed on June 18, 2023 in the targeted shooting in Canada’s Surrey.

In a video statement, leading pro-Khalistan’s separatist group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) General Counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun disclosed: “The Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), acting under the instructions of Narendra Modi assassinated Hardeep Singh Nijjar—the incharge of Khalistan Referendum in Canada”.

According to the World Sikh Organisation (WSO) of Canada, “Nijjar had been warned by Canada’s spy agency about threats against him.”

Nijjar’s death came few days after a close aide of Amritpal Singh Avtar Singh Khanda—the chief of the UK-based group—Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) died in the UK. Reports suggest that Avtar Singh was working in close association with UK based Sikhs, Paramjit Singh Pamma and Nijjar who were spearheading secessionist campaign ‘Referendum 2020’ of organisation ‘Sikhs For Justice’.

India Today revealed on June 15, 2023: “Avtar Singh Khanda, UK-based chief of the Khalistan Liberation Force has died…sources said… he evaded the police for 37 days in between March and April, was suspected of being poisoned.”

Nevertheless, the Sikhs are fighting for a separate homeland since 1947, but the movement attained impetus after the brutal operation Blue Star launched by the Indian Army in 1984 at highly sacred Sikh religious place-the Golden Temple complex (Harmandir Sahib) in Amritsar, Punjab where their spiritual leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale had taken shelter.

It is worth-mentioning that the teacher of a private school in Uttar Pradesh state instructed students to hit the seven-year-old Muslim, allegedly for getting his times tables wrong. The video went viral on social media, and has triggered widespread dismay and condemnation by the Muslims.

India’s opposition leader Rahul Gandhi blamed the government for stoking religious intolerance, saying: “There’s nothing worse a teacher can do for the country…This is the same kerosene spread by the BJP that has set every corner of India on fire.”

Meanwhile, BBC documentary, titled ‘India: The Modi Question’, was released in the form of two episodes on January 17, 2023 and January24, 2023.

It explored the circumstances surrounding the 2002 communal riots in the Indian state of Gujarat when PM Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister, as well as the reportedly debatable term that he continues to serve as the Prime Minister of India. The state saw outbreaks of violence targeted at the minority Muslim population for over a year after the incident. BBC especially discussed Modi’s role behind massacring of the Muslim. A secret UK government inquiry had found Modi ‘directly responsible’ for riots.

New Delhi strongly criticized the BBC, calling it propaganda, restricted circulation of the documentary in India on 21 January 2023, by making use of Rule 16 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules)—YouTube and Twitter were directed to take down any links to or clippings of the documentary–the action has even evoked international response, with Germany urging India to uphold press freedom.

The ban on the documentary raises serious concerns about press freedom, especially in the context of the political environment in more disturbed parts of India, such as Kashmir. India has seen repeated attempts at influencing and controlling the media.

Regarding the ban of the documentary, the reactions of rights organizations have been intense and highly critical. The Human Rights Watch has released a strong statement and indicated that the BJP’s ideology has “infiltrated the justice system and the media, empowering party supporters to threaten, harass, and attack religious minorities, particularly Muslims, with impunity.” The Committee to Protect Journalists has called the ban a flagrant contradiction of New Delhi’s international commitments as a democracy.

It is noteworthy that in December 2023, the British TV regulatory authority slapped a fine of £20,000 on India’s fiercely nationalist and popular Republic television’s Hindi channel for broadcasting hate speech against Pakistan.

Of com penalised Hindi channel over derogatory and abusive comments made by host Arnab Goswami during a show last year. Republic TV and its combative founder and main anchor Goswami are largely seen as sympathetic to the Primier Modi’s ruling partly BJP.

In the meantime, Pro-Khalistan Sikh activists replaced the Indian flag with the Khalistan flag at London High Commission on March 19, this year in a show of support for more than 11,000 Sikh. In this context Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar claimed on March 20. 2023: “the British government had not met its obligations for the security of diplomatic missions” even as the ministry of external affairs stated that it wants “action” and not just assurances—After the UK deputy high commissioner was summoned.

As regard the Britain-India differences, The Guardian on July 24, 2015 had written: “Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, has praised an opposition politician Shashi Tharoor who called for Britain to make financial compensation to India for the damage done during 200 years of colonial rule.

The former United Nations under secretary general Tharoor argued that Indians had “literally paid for [their] own oppression”, as by the end of the 19th century they were the world’s biggest purchasers of British goods, as well as providing employment and salaries. India’s share of the world economy had gone from 27% to 4%.

Undoubtedly, we can conclude that under Modi, India is moving on dangerous, divisive and self-destructive path.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

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