Raw fascism

On Sunday, 22-year-old Indian Muslim activist Afreen Fatima lost her home in Uttar Pradesh – not because of a natural disaster but on orders of the state’s authorities. The BJP-ruled government in India has been gunning for Muslims ever since it took power in 2014. But things have come to a new low, first when blasphemous and hateful speech spewed by two senior BJP spokespersons came to the fore and then when the BJP decided to crack down on Muslims protesting such hate speech. Two teenagers died due to bullet injuries when the police opened fire in Jharkhand. More than 300 people were arrested in Uttar Pradesh alone, a state ruled by Yogi Adityanath – someone who is said to be as bad, if not worse, than Modi when it comes to targeting Muslim minorities. Yogi, a Hindu nationalist, also ordered three Muslim-owned houses be bulldozed. One of them belonged to Afreen Fatima’s father Javed Mohammad who was falsely accused by the UP police for being one of the main conspirators of violence in Prayagraj on June 10. Though there is no law in the Indian constitution or in its penal code which allows for the demolition of houses as a form of punishment, Javed Muhammad’s house has been demolished allegedly on the grounds that it was an illegal construction. His family and lawyers say that this is part of the continuing campaign against Muslims continuing in India.

Modi’s India has cracked down on Muslims peacefully protesting in India, but was quick to take note of a trade and financial boycott by Muslim countries, terming the offending spokespersons as ‘fringe elements’. That would be a gross understatement. These so-called fringe elements are the reason why genocidal songs are played out loud in rallies against Muslims in India. These so-called fringe elements are the reason that Muslim businesses are targeted as beef lynchings take place. The Indian judiciary, meanwhile, is a silent spectator in all this. The truth is that India has become a nightmare for the Muslims that live there and the BJP campaign against them only continues to grow. In Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, there is daily harassment of people living there as well as efforts to change the very demographic reality of the state. Pakistan has been raising its voice against Indian oppression of the Kashmiris as well as against the targeting of Indian Muslims in India, but other Muslim nations and the West too need to finally start speaking up against the regime of brutality that has been unleashed by the BJP.

It is obvious that BJP activists and groups affiliated with them have been given a clean slate to act as they please against Muslims. That ‘Shining India’ that was once dangled in front of all of South Asia as an example of tolerance has evidently disappeared if it ever existed. That India has become a completely fascist state is not breaking news but the way this state-sanctioned hate is being ignored by the world should be worrying for everyone. The lack of UN and world action against the situation is particularly disturbing and needs to be tackled before there are further attacks on people who have committed no crime other than raising their voice against hate speech and violence.