Abdullah Mustafvi
India has never been a peaceful land on account of religious harmony or inter faith harmony . Obviously , numerical dominance of Hindus is a key factor which keeps the other faith identities under a constant state of fear . Two days back Sikh community protested all over the world against the Golden Temple tragedy which remains in the history as one of the darkest spots on the forehead of so called secular democracy. In 1984 , indian forces conducted the operation Blue Star in famous Sikh worship place known as Golden Temple and killed innocent pilgrims in the garb of state security . Sikh uprising against Indian persecution since partition gradually transformed in demand of independence of Punjab and slogan for Khalistan shook the pillars in New Dehli . Golden Temple desecration and brutal massacre of protesting Sikhs was not the only incident of its kind rather whole Indian Punjab witnessed the worst kind of Sikh genocide in mid 80s.In response to this brutal action two Sikh body guards assassinated the then Indian PM Indira Gandhi . Unfortunately , no lesson was learnt by decision making quarters in New Dehli from such strong public reactions . Things have gone worst than the past as evident from present situation in Kashmir . Sikh community is being exclusively targeted by extremist cults of BJP in the form of malicious forceful religion conversion programs titled Ghar Wapsi . Modi led BJP regime has introduced a new interpretation of ‘Hindutva’ ideology in India. It is rapidly defeating the much talked about principles of secularismby turning those practically meaningless. A long list of highly objectionable incidentsof violence in the name of religious vigilantism have snatched the strength of high morals from Indian society. Religious hatred and social discrimination has always been a corner stone of Indian social dynamics. This abhorrent trend ultimately pushed the Muslim community to a stage where a political movement for religious based identity finally ended up at the partition of subcontinent and emergence of Pakistan. Though, it was the end of a political movement but in a way, the beginning of a new era of rivalry between India and Pakistan. Besides the creation of Pakistan, Hindu society always carry offensive motivation from the thousand years’long Muslim rule on India. Undoubtedly, the spread of Islam through highly peaceful methods of Muslim saints emergedas the biggest social challenge to the orthodox Hindu social order. Recent anti Muslim drive in India is the accumulative effect of all above mentioned factors. Though, violent ways of BJP and its allied militant sub organizations were oftenchallenged by the sane quarters of society but to no effect. Rapid rise of intolerance and prejudices proved unstoppable so far. A major cause of this uncontrollable spread is the availability of infinite support from state machinery. Frequent incidents of lynching, burning and killing pose a great challenge to so called Indian secular values and non-violent teachings of Gandhi Jee. Unfortunately, most of these abhorrent incidents took place at public places where hateful offenders mercilessly executed the poor victims on false charges of Beef eating. Under BJP’s rule such horrible incidents are neither surprising nor unexpected. This happens once hate mongers like Modi and Aditya Nath Yogi rise to the power chairs and lead the state machinery with all resources available in hands. On one hand, this powerful wave of religious hatred is sweeping away the peace and tolerance at Indian internal front. On the other hand, vigorous pursuance of hateful state agenda under BJP has pitched India against China and Pakistan, thus endangering the regional peace. This hate mongering eventually has started irritating the sane quarters as in the past good about sixty five top ex officials from different Indian services had to invite the attention of Indian state towards looming trend of intolerance, prejudiced handling , violence against minorities and totally unjustifiable vigilantism by self styled Hindutva ideology followers. One can safely comment that India is witnessing the death of free speech, human rights, logic, tolerance and popular human values. Minorities and oppressed classes have seen the worst and obviously the coming days do not portray any better picture too. India, with a pathetic track record of Muslim genocide in Kashmir, anti Muslim riots, Beef lynching cases , demolition of Babri mosque, operation Blue star at Golden temple and countless incidents of hateful violence, now rushing forward to explore more abhorrent side of Hindutva ideology. Recent Sikh protests, all over the world, against decades long inhuman state sponsored persecutions are sufficient to snatch the mask of artificial secularism from the face of India.
