During PM Modi’s visit to Washington D.C., President Trump congratulated the Indian people on what will be India’s 70th anniversary of its independence later this year. Trump said that this is a “magnificent milestone in the life of your very, very incredible nation.”
India is an incredible nation but not for the reasons it claims to be in its global “Incredible India” campaign. It is incredible that in India if you are accused of eating or possessing beef, cow vigilantes will attack you, possibly kill you.
There have been 63 reported attacks of cow terrorism on 152 people since 2010, of which 28 were killed for being in possession of beef with intent of eating it. The situation is so incredible that protests were held in cities across India days ago against a recent wave of attacks on Muslims by mobs that accuse them of killing cows or eating beef, the latest victim, a 16-year-old boy accused of possessing beef on a train, was stabbed to death by an angry mob of cow terrorists.
India is so incredible that more than half of its 1.3 billion population lives in extreme poverty. Each year, thousands of impoverished farmers commit suicide. According to one report, 41 farmers commit suicide everyday. It is incredible that more than 60 percent of the land in India is used for agriculture but the sector contributes a mere 16 percent to the GDP.
The images advertised in the “Incredible India” campaign are breathtakingly stunning. Equally stunning is the fact that there are 780+ million people living in India today without access to a toilet or any kind of sanitation facility. That is over 60 percent of the population. Simply incredible.
The 2017, Human Rights Watch report on India stated “Limits on free speech and attacks on religious minorities, often led by vigilante groups that claim to be supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are an increasing concern in India.”
The report highlighted other major concerns such as a lack of women’s rights and the rising number of gang rapes reported throughout the country. The lack of rights for people with disabilities and their imprisonment in “overcrowded and unsanitary state mental hospitals.” The limitations on freedom of speech, “authorities continue to use sedition and criminal defamation laws to prosecute citizens who criticize government officials or oppose state policies,” this practice is most prevalent in Jammu and Kashmir. The report also addressed the poor treatment of Dalits and Muslims, who are often “attacked on suspicion they had killed, stolen, or sold cows for beef.” And most importantly the report pointed to massive security forces abuses and lack of accountability, since last year, security forces in Jammu and Kashmir have killed hundreds of men, women and children for opposing the illegal Indian occupation of their homeland.
Reacting to the Indian government’s crackdown on Amnesty International offices, Champa Patel, the NGO’s South Asia Director said, “The irony is that the very people who boast a fiercely independent identity are so beholden to colonialism’s tainted legacy.”
For a country that boasts huge scientific achievements, superstition remains a major hurdle as it opposes modern science. Superstition does not only affect the poor or educated, it is rumored that in 2006, former Miss World, Aishwarya Rai had to marry a tree before she could tie the knot with Abhishek Bachan, both considered to be Bollywood royalty.
It is incredible that the person responsible for the worst terrorist attack in the country, a massacre unlike any other, which left thousands of Muslim men, women and children dead, is today India’s Prime Minister. It is ironic that Narendra Modi does not shy away from addressing international terrorism as the biggest threat to India, but fails to recognize the domestic violence and terrorism against ethnic and religious minorities.
Every single day there are reports of Muslims being lynched in public for one reason or the other. Dalit men and women stripped in public and dragged naked through the streets.
India has more than 18 million people living in slavery, incredibly, topping the list for the country with the most number of slaves by more than 14 million. That is more than the population of some European countries.
The Indian propaganda machine is artful in the way it depicts the country to be the world’s largest democratic polity, a paradise on the subcontinent, an economic titan. It is incredible that India can get away with spreading these lies. The truth is that India is nothing it claims to be and there will be very dangerous consequences if the world keeps buying into the “Incredible India” lie.