T
he world community has seen Indian rogueries but has opted to remain silent, as countries around the globe act on the basis of their national interest. Contemporarily, the national interest of western powers is throwing its weight behind India as the containment ring has again become a reality of the world and the competition shifted from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. This gave India the leverage of human rights violations and illicit moves.
The current ruling political party of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stems from an ideology similar to Nazism, called Hindutva—a form of extreme Hindu nationalism. The term was promoted by Vinayak Damodar and this extreme form of nationalism is fascist in nature.
After coming into power again in April 2019, it has targeted the Muslim population which is more than 200 million—constituting nearly seventeen percent of India. They were publicly attacked in many places by those celebrating Modi’s victory. At least 5 incidents of hate crimes have been recorded. Incidents have been widespread across the whole country from Delhi to Hyderabad. In Madhya Pradesh state, three Muslims, including a woman, were severely beaten by a mob on the suspicion of carrying beef. Similarly, a Muslim man in Gurugram, a suburb of Delhi was stripped of his prayer cap and made to shout Hindu religious chants. Hindu extremists have particularly been very violent and have carried out lynching’s against Muslims very openly. In the past year of Modi’s rule, 44 people were lynched, most of them were Muslim, by cow vigilantes. This specific type of attack has been termed ‘Cow Lynching’, and India is now being coined as ‘Lynchistan’.
The BJP government continued to build fear and hate among Hindus and referred to Muslims as threats. The fascist government rallied behind ideas such as building temples over demolished masjids and changing citizenship laws to bar Muslims. Recently, the verdict in the Babri Masjid demolition case was delivered after an indefensible delay of 28 years. A special Central Bureau of Investigation court acquitted all 32 people accused in the case and ruled out any criminal conspiracy due to lack of conclusive evidence against them. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharti were among those accused of criminal conspiracy and other charges. In addition to it, the people were beaten up and baton-charged by police who are peacefully protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
For decades, Indian Illegally occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJ&K) has been the centre-point of human rights violations by India. IIOJ&K has witnessed the loss of more than 60,000 civilians since the Kashmiri freedom movement started. India has stationed almost a million forces to fight those local Kashmiri people who want freedom. Modi has primarily been exploiting the conflict in Kashmir for political gain. On August 5, 2019 the BJP have heightened their already persecuted Kashmiri Muslim minorities. The Indian government revoked articles 370 and 35A, by taking away the region’s special status and made all of Kashmir a giant prison by imposing a 24-hour curfew, as more than seven million Kashmiris Muslims are confined with no access to the outside world. The internet and landlines were cut off and media personnel were blocked from entering. Additionally, the BJP government, keeping in mind a vision of turning the Kashmiri Muslim majority into minority on their own land, have allowed Indian citizens to privatise and buy Kashmiri lands. The situation would likely to intensify, if left unconstrained.
The contemporary Sino-Indian conflict can be attributed to multidimensional factors. The illicit Indian annexation of Ladakh, ignoring the pending resolutions of United nations, violations on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and opting to become the player of United States in Asia for the containment ring against China are all underlying reasons. However, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) surprised India by capturing 1,000 square kilometres of area in Ladakh along the LAC.
India can never teach a lesson to China as it is economically and technologically dependent on Beijing. So, it might be possible that New Delhi would surely attempt to start a second front of war against Pakistan to gain its image which it lost in the confrontation with China. As PM of Pakistan Imran Khan warned the global community at the UNGA; India was planning another “ill-conceived misadventure” in a “nuclearised environment,” but Pakistan was ready to retaliate. But, the concept of a two-front war requires the self-reliant elements of national power which India doesn’t possess as it is entirely dependent on international powers for imported military hardware.
In recent times, eleven Pakistani Hindu migrants were killed in Jodhpur, India for refusing to spy for India against their homeland. Shrimati Mukhi, daughter of a member of the affected family, had alleged in a press conference that the Indian intelligence agency Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) was behind the mass murder. According to her, the agency had asked the family to become an anti-Pakistan agent and later killed them for refusing. Pakistan has repeatedly asked about the investigation into the mysterious deaths of eleven Pakistani Hindus, but India refrained from sharing any information on the matter.
The policies and actions followed by PM Modi are not only damaging the secular image of India but also posing a threat to regional peace, stability, and security. Consequently, international forums and states that entertain the slogans of peace, human rights, avoidance of war and conflict should take notice of PM Modi’s hawkish, fascist, aggressive and expansionist policies and actions so that the world in general and South Asia, in particular, could be saved from any misadventure and conflict.
Jai Kumar Dhirani
The writer is a political analyst. He can be reached at jai.dhirani@yahoo.com.