How Modi Shammed World’s Largest Democracy in India, fascism is reinventing itself

In the contemporary world, Akhand Bharat has a con­trasting relation with West­phalian order. 

It tries to override the concept of sovereignty for physical ex­pansion, a method to increase land boundary. This concept was considered as radical but the prolonging BJP rule in the last decade has made it mainstream through like-minded media cov­erages. Unfortunately, the grow­ing majoritarian trend since last decade in ‘World Largest De­mocracy’ is resulting in wider acceptance of the concept within India as BJP’s public support is skyrocketing. Nationalism a for­midable force in Modi’s India. 

Prime Minister Modi an ac­tive member of RSS, is notori­ous for his complicity in the post-Godhra riots. Modi claimed that the fire on the train which killed 59 Hindus in 2002 was an act of Islamist terrorism rather than an outbreak of commu­nal violence, after that violence staged in Gujarat resulting in killing hundreds of Muslims. Modi always portrays India as once a glorious Hindu civiliza­tion eroded first by Mughals and then by British Empire. 

For BJP, Hindus were forc­ibly converted in other religions without their will and it is the re­sponsibility of their leadership to revert back those conversions by all means under the guidance of Modi known as ‘Butcher of Gujarat’. Over the decades, poli­ticians frequently have violated the secularism mantra, often cynically and out of calculated political compulsion. 

The leadership of the Indian National Congress, which ruled India for much of the post-in­dependence period, tradition­ally has championed its commit­ment to secular nationalism. But in reality the Congress Party has invoked religious sentiments in India to suit its changing po­litical interests followed by BJP. According to political scientist Ashutosh Varshney, “three com­peting themes have fought for political dominance in India. 

First, there is the territorial notion of India, the land between the Indus River to the west, the Himalaya Mountains, and the seas to the south and east com­prise India’s “sacred geography.” A second conception, the cultur­al notion, is the idea that Indian society is defined by the values of tolerance, pluralism, and syn­cretism. The final theme stress­es religion, the land known as India is originally the homeland of the Hindu community. While different religious communities may call India home, propo­nents of this third viewpoint see India as fundamentally belong­ing to the Hindu majority” and this concept gained momentum under the leadership of Modi to further polarized the already di­vided society of India. The Hin­dutva ideology haunting India since the time of independence, the founder of India ‘Gandhi’ be­came its first victim. 

Not only Gandhi but all those communities favored secu­larism met with dire conse­quences. Since then, the Hindu­tva ideology became the very foundation of every right wing political organization in India namely, RSS, Shiv Sena, Hindu Mahasbha, with the latest one being BJP, under the leadership of the most ignorant, fascist, cruel, and extremist person in the South-Asian region, Naren­dra Modi who is ruling India. 

The cult of Modi in India has daunting everyone, promotes anti-intellectualism by attacking religious seminaries, universities and educational systems that might challenge its ideas. It is a nightmare for the press and me­dia in fact anyone who is against the idea of Modi. Academics and scholars are fired, attacked for criticizing Hindutva or the poli­cies of Modi. Government insti­tutions, security and financial agencies, intimidate and harass opposition parties in fact anyone who dares to voice dissent. 

From the destruction of Babri Masjid to the communal riots of 2022, Modi found everywhere in one way or the other. Muslims have been the prime target of Hindutva fascism in India, but un­fortunately, they aren’t the only one. After Muslims, Christians and Sikhs have been suffering at the hands of Hindu vigilantes. 

They are punished with po­groms, lynchings, targeted murders, custodial killings, love jihad, fake police “encounters” and imprisonment under false pretexts. Bulldozing their homes and businesses a tactic recently adopted by BJP following Israel, before the bulldozer era, pun­ishment for Muslims was meted out by Hindu vigilante mobs un­der the supervision of Police. 

The Hindu regime with the help of media tycoons made up of about 400 TV channels, numerous websites and news­papers to keep a continuous drumbeat of hatred and bigotry against minorities. On social media, it is now routine to en­counter open calls for the geno­cide of Muslims. 

In 2021, Mohan Bhagwat, the head of RSS, in his speech warned Hindus about the en­forced religious conversions and demographic changes in India’s Northeastern states which con­sist of large Christian population. 

Three days after the speech, Rameshwar Sharma, a BJP member called the Hindutva masses for a “India free of veil-wearing Muslims and Christian priests”. Similarly, the Sikh Com­munity has also been on the Hit-list of Hindutva ideology since independence. 

Their rising voice for a sepa­rate state, Khalistan have turned the edge of Hindutva swords against the Sikhs. Sikhs geno­cide in 1984 which left thou­sands of Sikh families homeless and most recently, on May 29, 2022, the most iconic Punjabi singer, Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, was assassinated by unknown killers who shot him 24 times in a broad day light. 

Today India is not a secular state but a Hindutva dominated society further polarized the already divided society. The an­nexation and expansion policy of BJP is not only threatening minorities living within India but it is also worrisome for the neighboring countries. 

The concept is also problem­atic for small South Asian states who tries to maintain a strong and balancing relation with In­dia for their strategic calcula­tions. BJP regime has left the British far behind in terms of atrocities and cruelty on minor­ities, the rule of BJP always been upholding its extremist Hindu­tva ideology. 

The military wing ‘RSS and Shiv Sena’ are more power­ful than ever before but world powers are not taking any ac­tion against them because of strong bond of economic and military interests. Today the world’s largest democracy is in turmoil and it is burning itself on a much faster pace.

LINES OF PERSUASION 

1. The staged Pulwama at­tack was the brainchild of Modi government to rally political support by domestic public for the then-upcoming elections by capitalizing on anti-Pakistan narrative, national revenge sen­timent and war hysteria created by domesticated media / ma­nipulated campaign. 

2. Even after 4 years, facts re­garding Pulwama attack remain unanswered; Why was Adil Ahmed Dar arrested & released 6 times from 2016 to 2018? Did the unjust & harsh treatment of Adil Dar resulted into Pulwama Attack? How is it possible that Pakistan was able to smuggle 350 Kg of highly explosive ma­terial right under the noses of 800,000 Indian security per­sonnel and across hundreds of kms? India is yet to render any irrefutable evidence. How was India able to conclude Pakistani hand behind the attack within hours of the incident while ig­noring the numerous past ar­rests of Adil Dar & statement of Adil’s parents that he resorted to revenge after the torturous treatment by BSF / CRPF? 

3. Codenamed “Operation Bander”, Indian Airforce cow­ardly attacked a fictitious target which was never there on the ground on the night of 26 Feb 2019. The payload was dropped in mountains killing some crows and trees only while India media went into a war frenzy terming it Surgical Strike 2.0 and claim­ing that hundreds of terrorists had been killed. Pakistan took the foreign and domestic media to Balakot and revealed the real­ity of so-called surgical strikes. Until now, India is yet to render any proof whether a surgical strike was conducted at all? If it was conducted, where were the 300+ casualties or infrastruc­tural damage? 

4. On 27 Feb 2019, PAF jets struck the targets deep inside IIOJ&K while avoiding popu­lated targets to avoid the loss of life. The brief skirmish also resulted in downing of 2 Indi­an jets by PAF, shooting down of a helicopter by nerved In­dian Army & capturing of Wing Commander Abhinandan Var­thaman. As a peace gesture, Pak released Abhinandan within 48 hours of his apprehension dem­onstrating that Pak is a peace-loving nation. 

5. To hide the embarrassment, India started making ridiculous claims. First, they denied shoot­ing down of any Mig-21. Then Indian media claimed shooting down of Pak F-16 which was also rejected by the US, Chris­tine Fair as well as Indian De­fence experts. To make the mat­ters worse, India announced awarding Wing Commander Ab­hinandan Varthaman with Vir Chakra for his alleged (though denied internationally) shoot­ing down of F-16 which was a laughable fantasy aimed at ap­peasing domestic audience & efforts to hide own dismal per­formance in Pak-India standoff. 

6. Operation Swift Retort demonstrated that Pak has the capability to defend itself against any form of aggression while retaining the liberty of re­taliation at time & place of own choosing in response to any hos­tile misadventure. It highlighted Pak’s capability to dominate the escalation ladder, retaining control of the spiraling situation and ability to exit the conflict at own advantage. 

7. The resolute & measured Pakistani response restored national prestige & morale, peo­ple’s trust in Armed Forces as well as thwarted Indian design of dominating the region by off­setting its ‘new normal’. 

8. The Pak-India standoff brought the nuclear South Asia very close to a possible volatile conflict having potential to desta­bilize the entire regional peace. The strategic restraint exercised by Pak in face of fake surgical drama, measured & calculated response to avoid populated targets during Operation Swift Retort & release of Wing Com­mander Abhinandan as a peace gesture diffused the situation. 

9. Indian media was monu­mental in creating a war hys­teria by glorifying fabrications and without realizing the reper­cussions if the conflict had spi­raled out of control. Contrary to the war frenzy of Indian media, Pakistani counterpart played a more mature role by toning down the rhetoric, unearthing Indian propaganda through in­vestigative journalism & high­lighting Pak’s peace overtures against Indian warmongering. 

10. The timing of Pulwama at­tack has also raised many seri­ous questions on the incident, its handling by Indian govt & subsequent immature impul­sive response. This year, 9 states will have local elections in In­dia leading to 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The question which comes to the mind is that will Modi again stake the regional peace for political gains or will International media, Global co­mity & Indian public pre-empt the nefarious designs of radical RSS driven Modi’s hijacked BJP? 

11. World must realize that the last time it followed an ap­peasement policy, WW2 oc­curred resulting into massive loss of life and unprecedented destruction. Will the world con­tinue to ignore Indian belliger­ence & war mongering attitude due to temporary alignment of interests or will the world real­ize the brewing storm in the so-called ‘largest democracy’?

AMIT SINGH