Reema Shaukat
Since India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come into power BJP’s discriminatory policies towards Indian Muslims have alarmed the international community. The BJP policies are based on RSS ideology of Hindutva or Hindu nationalism with an idea to form Akhand Bharat, or an undivided Indian state which is true representative of Hindu culture and religion. The BJP’s extremist actions and discriminatory policies can be traced back to their first tenure in government when events of 1998 nuclear explosion, violence against Christians, Gujarat carnage and strengthening of Indo-Israel ties took place.In the past few months, instances at different times have shown how India is taking Modi and how the world is reacting to his approaches. Mr. Modi makes sure that to make India greater he can take any giant leaps on behalf of any kind of harms to human rights or other misdeeds. It seems that now world community has started taking notice of human rights violations in India.
Earlier view was that Pakistan’s protest on any Indian violation is atimewornuproar and Pakistan is only concerned for Kashmir. But now the international community too has noticed that there is surely something wrong with Modi Sarkar and his followers. Interestingly, this time US lawmakers have pointed out grave concerns on Indian mythology. A letter has been written to Narendar Modi in which 34 US Lawmakers have shown their apprehension over his policies in India particularly human rights violations following his ideology. The letter was released by The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan caucus of the House of Representatives and draft was signed by eight senators and 26 members of the House, from both parties. In the letter showing concerns over intolerance and violence in society particularly for minorities living in India, it quoted that”We urge your government to take immediate steps to ensure that the fundamental rights of religious minorities are protected and that the perpetrators of violence are held to account.”
In the particular notelet released by US lawmakers’ different incidents of violence were mentioned which were particularly highlighted to remind Modi of his injustices in India. These include ban in June, 2014 on Christian community to follow their religious norms. It is said that non-Hindu religious propaganda, prayers, and speeches in their communities imposed by 50 village councils in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, has effectively criminalized the practice of Christianity for an estimated 300 Christian families in the region. Similarly they showed fear on the ban of beef slaughtering stating this almost country-wide beef ban is increasing tensions and encouraging vigilant violence against the Indian Muslim community. This letter mentioned deaths and intolerance of Hindus on killings of Muslims Mohammed Hasmat Ali in Manipur and Mohammed Saif in Uttar Pradesh just on mere suspicion. Another occurrence which was cited in epistle was Indian prejudice towards Sikh community in which two Sikhs were killed while they were protesting on desecration of their religion’s holy book, Sri Guru Granth Sahib. This letter asked Modi to recall his words in which he mentioned that during his rule he will give freedom of faith to his populace in India and will not incite hatred towards any particularly community.
Now if scrutinising the policies of Modi and this particular letter, we see that Modi belongs to a party BJP which functions under the mantra of Sangh Parivar including its factions like RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal. This party under its insignia works on the clandestine mission of greater India.In past two months, Modi policies have come under huge critique which is eminent from within India also. Episodes of mob killings, lynching of men on beef cutting, malicious activities of Shiv Senna on visit of Pakistani artists, sports persons and intellectuals depict BJP’s intolerance towards minorities and Muslims specifically. A notable opposition came from within India in which representatives of civil society returned their awards to government which is a clear blow to Modi. On his visit to Indian Occupied Kashmir there was a complete shutter down and people came on streets raising black flags to protest on violations of human moralities by Indian forces. A similar kind of response Modi received on his visit to UK. Modi because of communal riots in Gujrat during his tenure as CM was banned to visit USA, UK and other European countries. Now as PM when he visited UK a large number of people including Muslims, Sikhs and other Indian minorities gathered and protested his arrival in UK. Around 200 literary figures signed an open letter urging David Cameron, PM of UK to demand Modi provide “better protection” for writers, artists and also give freedom of expression to people living in India. Likewise, Go Modi Go slogans were chanted on his visit to Lucknow University in which a Dalit community student committed suicide because of injustice done to him.
This letter is addressed with a beginning saying that US is raising this issue as she considers India as its strategic partner. Well, this statement somehow shows soft corner of US for India and Pakistan still has its own concerns for regional stability when India is on way to pursue arms race. Modi is due to visit USA in the end of March 2016 and the kind of persona Modi always adopted before his foreign visits show that it is a fool’s errand to expect a sensible justification from his regime on religious intolerance in India. With the growing happenings of bigotry and activities of RSS in account, Modi surely needs to revisit his state policies and is accountable for all injustices being done in country under his power.Unfortunately India always have venomous matter to spill it over Pakistan and change world’s attention towards their own internal systematic flaws. Therefore, one can say that this claim of Indian secularism and biggest democracy is a mere mirage. According to Franklin D. Roosevelt, “No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.”
