A hug with Modi now endangers peace
Prof BadarShahzad
India has become the largest modern day Roman amphitheater where the minorities,
mostly Muslims and Dalits, are mocked and eviscerated, both mentally and
physically. Amidst loud chants of Bharat Mata ki Jai and Jai Sri Ram, the
victimsare put to death with brutal torture; even nuns and pregnant women are
not spared in this gruesome BJP political arena.
The Indian amphitheater smells of human flesh and victims crying for help. Every
street in the kingdom of Sri Ram from Kashmir to Delhi smells of human flesh and
blood. The images of Muslim property looted and burnt in Delhi havefaded away in
the media – thanks to the new front the BJP has opened with the Sikh farmers.
A fake surgical strike across the border or instigation of Shia-Sunni massacre
in Pakistan is a known strategy in Modi’s political book aimed at diverting
attention from his failures. Pakistan-bashing and killing of minorities is
Modi’s shortcut to success.The Hindu goons groomed under RSS ideology show no
mercy; men, women and children are thrown off running trains, burnt alive and
raped on the pretext of violating BJP-introduced law of respecting cows or
loving jihad. No wonder the educated Hindus claim that cows and monkeys enjoy
more rights than the Muslims and Dalit minorities do.
Caste inequalities and injustice ingrained inthe Hindu scriptures added with
illiteracy has shaped the Hindu ‘Taliban’ minds goading them to worshiping the
street monkeys, snakes, rats and killing minorities to gaining credit for
heavens. The Hindus confused by the anomalies in their political scriptures is
enough for them to their crimes in everyday life. Raping, killing and
burning Dalits and Muslims is sanctified by the BJP high priests. The UP
government run by BJP’s priest,Yogi Adyanath, is a perfect example of the Hindu
‘Taliban’who is following the footsteps of Adolf Hitler. Yogi’s gangsare
following the laws of ‘purification’andconverting Christians or Muslims to
Hinduism. Villagers andDalits have their women raped if they do not convert to
lower caste Hindus.
Adityanath is Modi’s right hand; he has been in jail for serious crimes
including murder.Hewas released due to political backing. NHRC and UN experts
based in India reported 59 cases of extrajudicial killings of minorities in fake
encounters.Instigating Hindu mobs byhate speech, Yogi endorsed raping Muslims in
public. “Hindu audiences should dig graves of Muslim women and rape their
corpses”. Yogi’s threats were not confined to ordinary Muslims, but he also
threatened Bollywood’s Muslim actors.
Cheap labour industry is run by the sweat of Muslim and Dalitlabour. 250 million
Dalitsprovide a ready base for Indian industry and brothels. India avoids
discussion on world forums claimingit as India’s internal affairs or family
affairs, and ensures a ready supply of cheap labour by never implementing laws
to protect minorities. Devadasi and Jogini systems are a form of religiously
sanctioned sexual abuse. Originally a sacred, religious practice, the Devadasi
dedication of girls to temples has turned into a systematic abuse of Dalit girls
serving as prostitutes for dominant caste community members. Most girls and
women urban brothels come from Dalit or minority communities”,reports a
prestigious India based human rights NGO.
A survey by Thomas Reuters Foundation in 2018 ranked India as the most dangerous
country for women in the world with 88 rapes per day and a conviction rate of
30% only. Most of the rapes of Dalits are reported in Hindu temples, while upper
class Hindu women rape cases occur in the most unthinkable public places like
moving buses, taxis, parks and picnic resorts.Teenagerslose their virginity
whilethey are in schools. Sexual orgies and worship of sexual organs in
scriptureshave moved from religious text to temple stones in form of nude
sculptures and into the Hindu mindset. Nudity is major component of Hindu temple
facade thathas become part of their cultural DNA and psyche.India’s National
Crime Record Bureau in its 2019 report claimedthat a rape case occurs every 16
minutes. BJP’s rape mentality has created fear among the minorities with Muslim
parents refusing to send their daughters to schools mostly located in dense
Hindu populations.
Is India shining or it is stinking with shame? Modiearned condemnation
forinvolvement in the killing and burning of Muslim properties in Delhi and
closing down of operations by Amnesty International.The European Parliament’s
subcommittee on human rights warned India against targeting religious
minorities. It urged Modi to meet his pledge to promote and protect human
rights. Maria Arena, the chief of EU human rights panel, said the protests over
Citizenship Act led to “arbitrary detentions and unnecessary loss of life”.
Shesaid that journalists and peaceful critics were being arrested under the
“draconian counterterrorism and sedition laws”. AIreported that police were part
of the gang that rampaged Muslim properties and killed 53. More were killed when
Doval visited the area. A statement by Noam Chomsky, a US philosopher, and
gender theorist Judith Butler, scholar Homi K Bhabha, writers Arundhati Roy,
MeenaKandasamy, Rajmohan Gandhi,Amitav Ghosh and Salman Rushdi, filmmaker Mira
Nair, historian Irfan Habib, journalist P Sainath, and actor Ratna Pathak Shah,
among many others expressed concern at the arrest of democratic voices in India.
Well if the butcher of Beirut, Iraq and Afghanistan can be honoured with a Nobel
peace prize to wash the blood stains on his hands, the days are not far when
Modi will want one too, and he might succeed in getting one. He is the butcher
of Gujarat. Once condemned and refused visa by the international community for
the state massacre of 2,500 Muslims and later hugged and praised as a champion
of democracy,he is asking for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. This
will be a harder task to achieve than awarding ModiPeace prize for legislating
law and creating an environment conducive for killing Muslims.
Launching expensive space missions to Mars, while 50% of the population
defecates in open air and lacks clean drinking water, and the megalomania of
usurping neighboring territories, will bend India to a breaking point.The
largest number of farmers committing suicide is not based in China or US, but
India. Modi is at war with the people who feed India. India under him is on a
dangerous move, all the symptoms point to a lurking danger of a serious crisis.
Economic failures combined with the aftereffects of corona pandemic are bound to
compelHindus to flog and kill its minorities. The Muslims being the weakest will
be the easiest target of Hindu fanatics. Modi and RSS need to win a third term,
too.
A surgical strike across LoC would be very expensive and painful, so Modi might
do it the cheap way by killing the Muslims in Delhi and Kashmir. His Hindutva
philosophy, anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan propaganda is a dangerous fire that
could flare into a damaging nuclear war – a war that could freeze and end our
world as we see it today.
(Shahzad is visiting lecturer at Bahria University, Islamabad)