Mohammad Jamil
Since BJP government came into power under the leadership of Narendra Modi, social and religious tensions have risen, and atrocities committed by Hindu fanatics on minorities have increased manifold. Before May 2014, people were not killed or beaten for eating beef or trading in cattle skins. But today in India, under Bharatiya Janata Party government “a dead cow is more precious than the life of a Dalit or a Muslim”, is an axiom or self-evident truth. Last year, four Dalit men were stripped down and beaten with sticks for trying to skin a dead cow by the Hindu fanatic group in Una – a town in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Members of Gau Rakshak Sena (Cow Protection Army) not only humiliated the members of the socially marginalised Dalit community but also made a video of the whole episode to show off their temerity to act without fear.
Members of Hindu extremist organizations know that the government cannot arrest them because the party holds power in the state, and New Delhi supports such vigilante groups. A Muslim woman was thrashed by Hindu right wing radicals for allegedly possessing beef in Madhya Pradesh reveals a very disturbing story of India, a country which aspires to be a leading nation in the global arena. Apart from these incidents, Hindu fanatics continue killing Muslims for slaughtering cow or eating beef. The cow vigilante group has not only killed and beaten Muslim men merely based on suspicions of carrying cows or eating cow meat but also pushed the Dalits to a corner because many of them make a living from selling cow skin. Hindus sensitivity towards cows is not new but they have never led to a bitter and a deadly schism between communities.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that such a behavior of vigilante is not acceptable; but it was mere rhetoric and he did not mean it. The signal was quite clear in the early days of the Modi regime when the Hindu radicals started a program called ‘Ghar Wapsi’ which meant to forcefully reconvert the Muslims who left the Hindu faith generations ago. The ban on eating beef and meat in Mumbai was meant to convert secular India into a Hindu state. These are obvious attempts at making India a Hindu majoritarian state. History textbooks clearly state that during ancient times, Indians used to serve cattle meat to guests and it was an important delicacy during the Vedic period (c 1500 – c 500 BCE). This information comes from one of the sacred ancient scriptures, but the Hindu regime wants to teach young minds only the parts that glorify Hinduism.
This majoritarian project runs counter to the oft repeated mantra of development by the Indian prime minister. Modi talks big, he wants to make India one of the most successful and prosperous countries in the world. But his words sound vacuous when India is confronted by cases of lynching of a Muslim for alleged possession of beef and beating of Dalits for skinning a dead cow. PM Modi never tries to stop his party men or his followers from indulging in anti-Muslim, anti-minority, or anti Dalit acts. This duplicity clearly demonstrates that the BJP government in Delhi is working on a very clear agenda of turning the nation into a Hindu state officially. This agenda will not make India a progressive nation, but a reactionary state. This is worrying. Already, Hindu radicals have occupied public discourse and have won favours from some of the media houses.
Today, India’s diversity is under siege by its own ruler. A reign of terror has been let loose on those who don’t agree with the Hindu right wing narrative. The ring master, Modi, who otherwise tweets on many unimportant issues, assumes a deadly silence at a time when his voice should reach out to the victims and act as a stern warning for the perpetrators of the crime. The tragedy is that a section of the vocal media is privy to this devious project. At a time when the world needs to adopt and promote diversity to ward off the evil of sectarianism and terrorism, India is shying away from its civilisational assets, that is—unity in diversity. It is gradually becoming a breeding ground for Hindu terrorism. India has never been under siege before as it is now.
