Anti-Muslim Aftermath of Modi’s Election Victory By Sajjad Shaukat (JR 189 SS 60)

Anti-Muslim Aftermath of Modi’s Election Victory By Sajjad Shaukat (JR 189 SS 60)

Indian Prime Nerendar Modi’s extremist party BJP had got a land sliding triumph in the Indian elections 2014 on the basis of anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan slogans. Indian election-campaign against Islam, Muslims and Pakistan enabled BJP hardliner Modi to become Indian prime minister. Whereas, the Muslim community in India had felt alienated, frightened and perturbed, as most of them were also effectively disenfranchised.

Muslims were already aware of Modi’s agenda to reduce the Muslim community in India to second class citizens, and had felt nervous and gloomy. Their anxiety was multiplying due to the fact that during the election-campaign, the BJP was also speaking of Hindu deep seated animosity against Pakistan and Pakistani public.

Hence, since the Prime Minister Modi came to power, he has been implementing anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan agenda with the support of fanatic coalition outfits. 

In this regard, various developments like unprecedented rise of Hindu extremism, persecution of Muslims, assaults on Muslims, including their places of worships and property by the fanatic Hindu mobs, inclusion of Hindu religious books in curriculum, forced conversion of Muslims into Hindus and ban on beef and cow slaughter clearly showed that encouraged by the Hindu fundamentalist groups such as BJP, RSS VHP, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena, including other similar parties have been promoting religious and ethnic chauvinism in India by propagating the ideology of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) which is the genesis of Hindu terrorism.

Besides, continuing false flag operations, on Setember18, 2016, New Delhi staged the drama of the terror attack in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) at a military base in Uri, close to the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan. After the Uri episode, without any investigation, India’s top civil and military officials, including their media started propaganda against Pakistan by accusing that the militants who targeted the Uri base came from Pakistan’s side of Azad Kashmir. India created war-hysteria against Pakistan and started mobilization of troops near the LoC, while claiming surgical strikes on the Azad Kashmir. But, the myth of Indian so-called surgical strikes was exposed, as Indian top civil and military officers could not prove the strikes. Meanwhile, Indian forces also accelerated violations of the LoC by shelling Pakistani side of Kashmir, which still continues.

However, BJP played the same anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan card to gain votes of a majority of Hindus in the general elections 2019. Hindu majority was mobilized on ‘hate Muslim’ slogans and ‘anti-Pakistan’ jargons, while the incessant and unjust Indian propaganda against Pakistan was beyond anybody’s cognition, which still keeps on going.

Notably, very tension escalated rapidly between New Delhi and Islamabad when on February 27, this year, in response to the Indian so-called pre-emptive air strike near the town of Balakot, close to the border with Pakistan’s sector of Kashmir, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down two Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets and launched aerial strikes at six targets in the IOK.

In the aftermath of the false flag terror attack at Pulwama, truth about India’s surgical strikes unmasked, when Indian top civil and military leaders failed in providing any evidence.

The myth of Indian surgical strikes was further exposed, when, referring to the statement of Indian India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who admitted on April 18, 2019 that no Pakistani soldier or citizen died in the air strike carried out by IAF across the border in Balakot, Director General of Pakistan Army’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Maj-Gen. Asif Ghafoor stated on April 19, 2019: “After India finally admitted that their so-called air strike carried on February 26 in Balakot caused no deaths and casualties…Hopefully, so will be about other false Indian claims [such as] surgical strike of 2016, denial of shooting down of two Indian Air Force [IAF] jets by Pakistan Air Force and claims about F16…Better late than never.”

Afterwards, journalists visited the targeted site of Balakot and Islamabad also released a video which exposed the false statements of New Delhi that IAF fighters targeted the camp of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and killed 350 militants.

In fact, the false flag terror attack in the Pulwama district of the IOK, which killed at least 44 Indian soldiers, was election stunt of the BJP. Exploiting that episode, a wave of jingoism was created by the BJP-led fanatic parties against the Muslims and Pakistan to win the general elections 2019.

Therefore, as regards the elections 2019, on May 23, 2019, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 352 out of 542 Lok Sabha seats, with the BJP sweeping up 303 seats on its own—21 seats more than it won in the 2014 elections. Across most of North and Central India, BJP candidates also won with bigger vote shares and wider victory margins than in 2014.

Owing to the huge mandate of the BJP, violence has been let loose, with “Jai Shri Ram”–a slogan that roughly translates to “Hail Lord Ram”. As Modi was named as the leader of the NDA for a second time, minority communities especially Muslims have made to live in fear by the extremist Hindus.

In this respect, in the aftermath of the election results, news reports have highlighted different cases in which Dalits and particularly Muslims were violently targeted for reasons as varied as allegedly possessing beef, protesting against caste-based discrimination or simply being Muslim. Especially, various incidents of arrests and violent assaults on the Muslims by the Hindus have been recorded.

In an incident, a Santhali teacher in Jharkhand was arrested for a two-year-old Facebook post defending the right of Adivasi communities to eat beef.

In Begusarai district, where Hindutva hardliner Giriraj Singh won the 2019 Lok Sabha seat, a Muslim youth Mohammed Qasim was shot at by a Hindu Yadav on May 26 after his attacker discovered his religious identity.

25-year-old Mohammad Barkat from Gurugram in Haryana was accosted by a group of Hindus who ordered him to take off his skullcap. According to a report of “The Hindu”, the group of men abused Barkat and told him that skullcaps were not allowed in that area. When Barkat told them that he was returning from the mosque after prayers, one of the men slapped him. Barkat told ‘The Hindu’, “When I refused, he threatened to feed me pork…The men also beat me with a stick and tore my shirt before driving away on a motorbike.”

Tabrez Ansari, 22, was caught by a crowd in the BJP-ruled state of Jharkhand on suspicion of stealing a motorcycle on 18 June. He was tied to a tree and beaten within an inch of his life. And while he was being thrashed, the crowd established his religion–Muslim and then began the demands for “Jai Shri Ram”. Ansari was then arrested and taken into judicial custody. On June 23, he died in a local hospital after he complained that he felt unwell.

In the West Bengal, a 26-year-old Muslim teacher Hafeez Mohammad Sahrukh Haldar was attacked by a group of Hindus on June 24 and was pushed off a train in Kolkata for not chanting “Jai Shri Ram”.

In the run-up to May’s general elections and after the results were declared, Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of Bengal, was constantly heckled by BJP mobs to shout, “Jai Shri Ram”.

Nevertheless, persecution of the Muslims continues unabated in India and the BJP-ruled central government has been largely silent in this regard.

In this connection, Hindu-Muslim communal tension flared up in Old Delhi’s Hauz Qazi on July 1, this year after 3 or 4 Hindu boys, including 45-year-old Sanjeev Kumar Gupta tortured a Muslim boy Aas Mohammad (20) on alleged wrong parking of motor bike on night of June 30, 2019 outside his house next to the temple. Muslims of the area observed shutter down strike. During protest, another scuffle took place between Hindus and Muslims, which resulted into increased tensions. A group of Muslims damaged two Mandirs in the area. However, no casualty took place.

India’s Central Reserve Police (CRPF) cordoned the areas of Darya Gunj, Pahar Gunj, Lal Kunwan, Jamia Masjid and Chandni Chowk with unannounced curfew like situation. New Delhi has ensured a complete black-out of the incident in print and electronic media.

According to the India Today, “Politicians giving communal spin to the incident: Sanjiv Kumar, man involved parking scuffle in Delhi, speaks to India Today...Reiterating that there was no intention to give the Hauz Qazi incident a communal colour…Politicians end up giving communal colour to everything. Whether it is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress or Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), there is no exception.”

It is notable that even foreign print and electronic media and analysts opined, “Modi’s election win is a victory for far right Hindu nationalism…India’s secular democracy is under threat…BJP’s record in 2015-2019 has been divisive to say the least. The party has marginalised religious minorities, especially Muslims, from public life with many, as a result, being lynched by Hindu nationalists in the name of cow protection…Jingoism and Islamophobia has propelled the BJP to an even stronger showing than in 2014. A Modi victory puts India’s 200 million Muslims in danger…Modi is part of the large Hindu supremacist family…In his home state of Odisha, he furthered India’s sectarian divide, pushed the idea of Hindu supremacy and with that, violence against Muslims, Christians and other minorities…Modi is radicalising Muslims.”

Undoubtedly, we can that the Constitution declares India to be a secular state, granting equal rights to the religious minorities, but in practice, ideology of Hindutva prevails. Hindu politics and culture, dominated by the extremist Hindu parties have been propagating Hindutva agenda. After the election victory of the BJP and its coalition parties led by the fundamentalist Prime Minister Modi, Muslim anxiety in India is increasing owing to the fact that like the previous elections, during the election-campaign of 2019, Hindu majority was mobilized on the anti-Pakistan and anti-Muslim slogans. 

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

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com

Dangers of Modi’s ‘Meta-Nationalism’ for India By Sajjad Shaukat JR 176 SS 60

Dangers of Modi’s ‘Meta-Nationalism’ for India By Sajjad Shaukat JR176SS50

Indian Prime Minister Nerendar Modi’s extremist party-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had got a land sliding triumph in the Indian elections 2014 on the basis of anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan slogans. Therefore, since the Prime Minister Modi came to power, he has been implementing anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan agenda with the support of fanatic coalition outfits.

General elections 2019, which started in India on April 11 are being held in 7 phases and will continue till May.

It is notable that the Constitution declares India to be a secular state, granting equal rights to the religious minorities, but in practice, ideology of Hindutva prevails. Hindu politics and culture, dominated by the fundamentalists parties such as BJP, RSS, VHP, Shiv Sena and other similar groups have been propagating Hindutva agenda. Under Modi rule, Muslim anxiety in India is multiplying due the fact that during the election campaign, Hindu majority was mobilized on ‘hate Muslim’ slogans. 

In fact, Modi’s “New India” is transforming into a “fascist and extremist India” which is intolerant and inflexible to any kind of opposition and criticism. As per reports, in the backdrop of recent Indo-Pak escalation, a professor of civil engineering department in Karnataka namely Wathar, attempted to vent out his frustration on social media. In a Facebook post, he had used expletives to refer to India’s ruling party and said it had endangered millions of lives. Two days later, right-wing Hindu group students/activist gathered outside his office, and forced him to apologize for his “anti-national” comments. He was even forced to beg for forgiveness. In a related activity, Sathiyaraj Balu, a member of a local pro-Tamil party, who posted a picture of Modi with a begging bowl on Facebook, was arrested in Tamil Nadu in January 2019.

Waves of Modi’s ‘meta-nationalism’ (Bhagva or Hindutva plus) have engulfed India more pronouncedly in the backdrop of Pulwama incident starting with Television anchors “calling for revenge” and even not hesitated to portray any questioning of the Indian government or armed forces as equivalent to helping Pakistan.

Many TV newsrooms were transformed into caricatures of military command centers, while anchors were assessing military technology/strategy. Speculation and conjectures were repeated and several journalists even took to Twitter to encourage the Indian Army. Reportedly, one particularly strident channel recently pushed the hashtag #Expose Pak Lovers.

Leading columnist and former editor of the Tribune Harish Khare said that “the recent climate marks a new turn for India. The government had stampeded the country into a volatile, edgy, anxious nationalism.” Reportedly, Mrs Mita Santra whose husband was amongst the persons, killed in the false flag terror attack at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had dared to comment that “war should be the last option”, but, she was roundly criticized on social media.

Regrettably, Modi’s ‘meta-nationalism’ in the aftermath of Pulwama incident generated so much pressure on the Indian political parties that initially, they also ascribed to “soft” Hindutva themes and accepted Pakistan’s direct culpability in the attack. However, after the Pakistan’s robust reply, arrest and return of Indian Air Force pilot Abhinanadan and exposure of the false story and exaggerations of the Modi BJP leaders—blatant lies about casualties in Balakot, some elements of India have started daring to raise questions about New Dehi’s falsehood. In this regard, besides other internal entities, Indian National Congress leader Sam Pitroda’s recent remarks igniting Modi and BJP might be cited as instance.

It is mentionable that that various moves and developments in India are part of Modi’s ‘meta-nationalism’. In this connection, since 2014, Modi government has been constantly attempting to weaken and tame institutions for political influences and benefits. In the same regard, he fiddled with judiciary resultantly, four Indian Supreme Court judges held a press conference in January 2018 to raise alarm bells regarding the independence of the judiciary.  In 2017, India fell three spots to 136^th on the World Press Freedom Index, amid fears of the government strong-arming the media. Resignation of governor Reserve Bank of India Urjit Patel also cast aspersions on the RBI’s autonomy. Modi also fiddled with Central Bureau of Investigation and “Removal of ex-director of CBI Alok Verma episode” has topped the media headlines.    

Apart from such fiddling, Modi government also attempted to manipulate laws; nevertheless, sensing signs of defeat, he opted for early retreat. Following are some episodes of Modi’s retreat which has exposed his real face:-   

In mid-2014, Modi government proposed an amendment to National Rural Employee Guarantee Act (NREGA) aimed at restricting NREGA. Seeing this as a dilution of the Act, 28 leading economists wrote that Modi and the government had to reconsider its ill-advised move with proposed amendments which were quietly withdrawn without even being introduced in parliament.

In December 2014, Modi-led regime promulgated an ordinance amending Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act 2013. LARR (Amendment) Bill 2015 was introduced; however, the bill generated strong protests by Anna Hazare, farmers, civil society groups and a walkout by the Congress. NDA allies Shiv Sena, Akali Dal and Swabhimani Paksha also expressed opposition to the Bill. In August 2015, ahead of elections in Bihar, Modi announced the lapse of the ordinance.

In May 2017, the Ministry of Environment and Forests notified rules under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act banning sale of cattle in animal markets. The move generated strong resentment and protest from the political parties. West Bengal, Kerala and Meghalaya saw the rules as infringing upon their jurisdiction, while protests in the form of ‘Beef Fests’ were held in Kerala and Karnataka. The ban was deemed to have been imposed on ideological grounds, detrimental to the cattle trade economy and was alleged to be a dog whistle to cow vigilante groups. In July 2017, Indian Supreme Court expanded a stay imposed by the Madras High Court into a nationwide bar on the rules. Following consultation from states, in April 2018, a fresh set of draft rules were brought in to scrap the ban.

In August 2017, Modi government introduced Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill in Lok Sabha. The Bill faced criticism from several opposition parties, and Trinomial Congress held protests outside the parliament. All India Bank Employees’ Union and industry body Assocham also opposed it. Despite vociferous attempts by the government to criticize this opposition, public concerns over security of bank deposits did not die down. The government withdrew the Bill citing need for a comprehensive re-examination.

In early 2018, the government announced its decision to stop printing the last page of the passport, which contains family and address information along with Emigration Check Required (ECR) status. The status was to be signified with an orange-coloured jacket. It was seen as segregating people with low education and economic status. The Congress termed it as equivalent to creating a new caste system. The Kerala high court considered it a violation to the fundamental right to privacy and dignity, issuing a notice to the MEA. In just over two weeks, the MEA announced withdrawal of the proposed changes.

In April 2018, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting put up a ‘Request for Proposal’ to set up a Social Media Communication Hub to monitor online social media data. It proposed a “social media analytical tool” that would deploy 360 degree monitoring to create digital profiles of citizens (bid document said the tool should be able to “listen” to email). The Internet Freedom Foundation sent a legal notice to the ministry asking for withdrawal of the tender. Indian Supreme Court, while hearing a petition also observed that the decision to create the hub will be “like creating a surveillance state”. Following this, the request for proposal was withdrawn.

In April 2018, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry announced that in an attempt to tackle fake news, it had amended the guidelines on accreditation of journalists. It was told that journalists against whom complaints of fake news had been registered would have their accreditation suspended till the complaint had been heard. The guidelines faced political and media outrage on various grounds such as violation of freedom of press and lack of a clear definition of “fake news”. Overwhelmed by the outrage, the guidelines were withdrawn within 24 hours under orders from the PMO itself

Nevertheless Modi and BJP have been exploiting ‘meta-nationalism’ narrative since last year as a part of “Lok Sabha 2019 preparatory activity.  Reports suggest that BJP General Secretary Amit Shah during (September 18) poll gatherings in North Eastern states, has been openly terming Muslim and other migrants to Assam etc. as ‘Termites’.  Modi-led BJP government also passed controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill to facilitate Hindu migrants only whereas; the Muslim migrants were deliberately ignored. His remarks attracted criticism from the US, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had expressed concern that “even some of our friends, allies, and partners around the world have human rights violations”. The annual assessment by the US state department of human rights concerns across the world-report 2018 also took notice of the Amit Shah’s remarks.

But, Prime Minister Modi and leadership of the extremist ruling party BJP continue with tirades against the opposition with ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign. RSS and Modi financed media outlets continue to hound against any dissenting voice, while terming them as “internal enemies”. The political intent behind this ultra-nationalist frenzy is patently clear under which every effort is being made to get the voter to think that the nation needs to unite behind one man – a decisive leader who can give a befitting reply to those who threaten the country. It has been a gen feeling in the Indian secular and liberal classes that by making everyone a chowkidar (guard), Modi has issued a national call to citizen vigilantism.

In this respect, Christophe Jaffrelot’s recent book “Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism Is Changing India” has amply exposed the surge of Hindutva (or meta-nationalism). It is statistically analyzed that Muslims participation in Indian politics is shrinking to alarming levels. The author proves that in the period of 1980-2014, the number of Muslim MPs in the lower house of the Indian parliament have shrunk in comparison to the Muslim population in India.  In another recent book of famous author A G Noorani titled “The RSS: A Menace of India”, examines and exposes the rise of RSS and Hindu fascism.

However, by inducing the Indian public with Modi’s ‘meta-nationalism’, Indian prime minister has been able to make a significant part of the population of the country to forget the collapse of the economy—the crisis in agriculture, the stagnation of industry—11 million jobs lost by it over the past five years, and the hollowness of the grandiose promises, he made to them when he came to power. It is now up to Indian people, if they are allowing ‘meta-nationalism’ to prevail in the country or they opt for respecting the secular and simple Indian nationalism, as inside India and abroad, dangers of Modi’s ‘meta-nationalism’ has been accelerated