After Pakistani Foreign Minister’s blistering remarks about the ‘Butcher of Gujarat’, i.e. Narendra Modi, Indian media has gone berserk; from the fire spitting Arnab Goswami to shrieking Rubika Liyaquat, a propaganda has been unleashed against Pakistan and her leadership.
Why would India want to protect UNSC members from hearing such remarks about the PM? Why does it not want the world to discuss fascism in India?
As reported by Indian Express, one of the key officers conducting an inquiry into Modi’s patronage of anti-Muslim massacre in Gujarat, IPS Sanjiv Bhatt was placed under suspension in August 2011 soon after his deposition against the then Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. Sanjiv Bhatt filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court of India against Narendra Modi, concerning his alleged role in the riots. He claimed to have attended a meeting during which Modi allegedly asked top police officials to let Hindus vent their anger against the Muslims. Later Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested and targeted through the legal arm of the RSS and has been kept in illegal custody and jail.
Indian leftist magazine, the Frontline, reported that the Supreme Court of India gave a clean slate to PM Modi. This was instantly followed by the arrest of Teesta Setalvad, the secretary of the Committee for Justice and Peace and the former Gujarat Director General of Police R.B. Sreekumar. The arrest was based on a first information report filed by a Gujarat Police officer alleging the complainants made false charges against Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A New York Times article written by Abhrajyoti Chakraborty highlighted how the right-wing agenda of the RSS and Modi-led government has drastically changed the socio-cultural landscape of India. The writer has made the works of the leading liberal documentary producer and filmmaker, Anand Patwardhan, as the center piece of his discourse. The gist of article by Chakraborty suggests that the world’s largest democracy has plunged into a majoritarian abyss since the BJP came to power in 2014. With testimonies from witnesses to mob lynching, stories of college students driven to suicide by intense right-wing ostracism and interviews with Hindu nationalists defending the frequent murders of journalists and activists, Patwardhan contradicts the narrative that the BJP routinely projects to the country’s 900 million voters.
The rise of the BJP and the RSS—a militant organisation devoted to making India a Hindu state and its minorities second-class citizens—has also been accompanied by mounting attacks on freedom of expression.
Patwardhan’s documentary, ‘Reason’ is structured around the murders of four Indian activists, all of whom were targeted for their resistance to Hindu orthodoxy in some way. Narendra Dabholkar, Ms. Gauri Lankesh and M.M. Kalburgi were shot point-blank with the same caliber pistol. Similarly Govind Pansare, a lawyer and intellectual was assassinated in February 2015.
Why has India not been labeled as a as of yet?
The answer is simple: Indian illegal involvement in internal affairs of neighboring state remains a fact for the last five decades. Supporting Mukti Bahinis in East Pakistan, Tamils in Sri Lanka, political parties in Nepal/Bhutan, ISKP in Afghanistan and anarchists in Pakistan.
Secondly, India has always attempted to destabilise Pakistan and Afghanistan. Nexus of RAW with terrorists in Afghanistan, spies caught by Pakistan and Qatar, involvement in terrorist acts in Pakistan and support to TTP and ISKP bears testimony to the fact that India remains the sole repository of terrorism in the region.
Thirdly, New Delhi like Israel has consistently paralysed the UNSC and fails to implement UN resolutions in Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK). The demographic apartheid through revocation of Article 370A and 35, delimitation of constituencies and the economic lockdown in Kashmir all point to the fact that India remains a state which has no regard for international norms.
It’s Hindutva Ideology and affiliated extremist parties are also a threat to minorities. Rising hate crimes against Christians, Muslims, Dalits and illegal demolition of mosques and churches duly supported by state machinery indicates that India is failing internally and is fast becoming a fascists state. India’s ruling regime discriminates humans on the basis of caste, religion and nationality. Just see the discriminatory nature of CAA and NRC and how the protests on these issues were thrashed by the state machinery and extremists.
India is also a country which ranks low on the Press Freedom Index, high on Social Hostilities Index and hunger and poverty. The country who exports fake medicines and vaccines to African and other countries has no remorse when more than 100 children died from cough syrups made by India.
Furthermore, India is actually the tyranny of extremist Hindu majority, US Commission on International Religious Freedom Report, AI Report, HRW Report; all point to the fact that minorities have no place in India and there is very likelihood of organised Muslims genocide under Modi Regime.
India also has a poor record of securing its strategic assets. Just see the number of nuclear material theft incidents in India, its easy availability in Indian markets and lest not forget the firing of Nuclear Capable Brahmos into Pakistan in March 2022.
To conclude, India is aspiring to be a permanent member of the UNSC and is tagging itself as a regional leader actually sponsors state terrorism and has become a nuisance for neighbors. Internally it has become a tyrant for its minorities, commits gross human rights violations in UN recognised disputed territory and is overlooking inequality within its society.