*Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of the Republic of India. Credit: Prachatai/ Flickr
Delhi burnt on Modi’s watch. The asymmetry of violence ensured that Muslims were at the receiving end. Out of the fifty-odd people who died in riots, the majority were Muslims. Thousands of Muslim families have been rendered homeless and traumatized as houses were gutted down and shops looted. The virulent jingoism and patriotic hysteria did not spare the women or children who were abused and molested.
A pall of gloom hovers around the already crowded night shelters (for the homeless), where the riot-affected families have been dumped by the Delhi government. According to a relief worker, more than the loss of property, the twin concerns of the poor Muslim families are: children have no textbooks to read and their citizenship records are destroyed.
The little ray of hope emerges from the efforts of scores Hindus, yet to be afflicted by the communal virus, who are relentlessly galvanizing the civil-society to provide relief and rehabilitation to the affected families.
The 2020 Delhi mayhem, with Modi at the helm, is a social media phenomenon, where the gory details of the atrocities committed against the hapless victims are being communicated through videos. Some of the perpetrators have also used ‘Facebook Live’ to display the extent of the brutality as well as war-booty.
The most disturbing element emerging from the videos is the partisan role of the Delhi-police that is seen either tacitly supporting the self-proclaimed patriots out to reassert Hindu supremacy or actively harassing the minority community.
But in today’s India, video evidence is of little significance because the Judiciary is pulverized to act. One High Court judge who dared to act to save a few lives during the riots was transferred overnight. As I write, the news is that the Supreme Court has rejected a riot-related petition filed by an activist who had questioned the role of the apex court at a public forum a few months ago; as justification by the honorable court to refuse intervention.In one such video, some police constables are seen torturing five injured Muslim boys lying on the ground, forcing them to sing the national anthem. Incidentally, one of the boys in the video is reported dead, due to injuries. Normalizing police atrocity, one BJP supporter tweeted (now withdrawn) “without song and dance no film is ever complete…"
Unlike the legal ‘emergency’ imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975, the current curtailment of institutional and individual freedom is driven through a concerted polarisation drive aided by a well-oiled propaganda machine (often using fake videos) that ensures every droplet of hate generated by the party leadership trickles down to millions of its members and sympathizers. Regular projection of Muslims as terrorists and traitors, the BJP’s social media hubs ensure that its network-nodes remain inspired by the state-spirit in eliminating the enemy within.
It is intriguing that the Indian State which exercised complete control over the police and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders who acted as agent provocateurs allowed the situation to escalate, despite the presence of the US President and a battery of foreign media persons in Delhi. With both the US and the Indian intelligence agencies in overdrive, it is perplexing that violence erupted in areas of northeast Delhi, merely a 10-12 miles away from the center where President Trump was being hosted. One doesn’t know if the ‘Air Force one' was placed on red-alert for take-off. A few years later, the US archives will definitely reveal more about the Delhi riots.
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It is difficult to comprehend the Modi government’s arrogance in brushing aside all evidence and demands by the opposition for a debate on riots in the parliament. The government’s brazenness in pretending that all is normal is unprecedented. Perhaps, it is Modi’s ideological affinity with Trump that explains his audacity in pursuing his agenda with impunity.
With the Muslim trust in the state apparatus in tatters, their future in India appears bleak. In a country where they are being constantly hounded as Jihadis and vilified for overbreeding and conspiring to outnumber the Hindus, Muslims are in for a tough time in India.
With their peaceful protest de-legitimized and their very being de-humanized, the death of a Muslim is fast becoming un-grievable in the psyche of the vast majority of Hindus. This dehumanization of Muslims is not novel. In 2013, Modi compared Muslim deaths in the 2002 Gujarat genocide to the killing of a puppy under the wheels of a car. The puppy(ization) of Muslims by Modi was not surprising as he considers relief camps for the riot victims as nothing but “child producing centers”, reinforcing a stereotype.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan used the religion card to carve a country for the Muslim elite. Modi seems to be on a similar mission to give the Hindu elite a pure land that is prosperous and has limited mouths to feed. In one of his infamous speeches of 2002, Modi suggested that the rising Muslim population prevented government benefits from reaching the poor. In 1947, the percentage of Muslims in undivided India was above 25 percent (reduced to 14% after partition). The Hindu elite found such large number of Muslims difficult to manage, especially because the Indian army was dominated by two minorities - Muslims and Sikhs. This was one of the compelling reasons for the Hindu elite’s tacit approval to the formation of Pakistan. Now, when they see Muslims constituting 20 percent of the population, in hindsight, they feel that forfeiting Indian territory to Pakistan was an exercise in futility. But what the Hindu fundamentalist forgets is that Muslims are not the sole contributors to India’s exponentially rising population that is set to overtake China.
The novice depopulation experts in the BJP think that genocide or reverse migration of Indian Muslims to Pakistan is the best population-control mechanism. However, BJP ideologues are oblivious to the consequences of this dubious de-population scheme on the psyche of other minorities and vulnerable sections of Indian society.
The systematic marginalization of Muslims is likely to raise doubts in the minds of other minorities, who fear that if a 20 million-strong community can be kicked around so easily then where is the safety for those who constitute a mere one percent of the population. This Sikh community is seen standing in solidarity with the Muslims offering resistance to the hegemony of the Hindus. The secular-left parties are making some electoral gains however, they are unable to dent the ideological appeal of right-wing Hindu forces and the popularity of Prime Minister Modi. They are probably waiting for the international political mood to shift from right to left.
Forced exclusion of communities and castes from the economic mainstream is likely to prove detrimental for internal peace and economic growth. Turmoil inside will give more openings to the external forces to exploit the fault-lines. The current geopolitical situation is favoring India, however, it is not likely to last forever. The most important thing to remember is that heavily nuclearized South Asia is considered the most dangerous place on earth.
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