India is a highly spiritual country where religious hatred or bigotry ought not to have had a place. This is unfortunately not the case. True, we have had serious communal riots in the past, particularly after Independence, which have taken away lives of lakhs of people, but this trend has considerably diminished in recent times. However, the possibility of communal flare ups erupting again cannot be excluded altogether, unless the present Government at the Centre takes tough steps to control the behaviour and the tongues of many of their own Party leaders.
In a globalised world, where people are coming together, irrespective of colour or creed, to make it a better place to live in, it is painful to watch our country drawing backwards, regrettably with the Party in power being mainly responsible for the divide. Not alone are Party leaders responsible for actions and statements, which are abominable and meant either to target or hurt the sentiments of other religious communities, but the Prime Minister’s and his Ministers’ deafening silence adds to the prevalent view that they approve of such demeaning behaviour. Though the Prime Minister cannot be expected to comment on every speech or action that some fanatics indulge in, his delayed responses, only after stringent criticism over his silence, confirm that they are reluctantly made only when pushed to the wall. And action on the ground seems to be eluding those who expected it after the PM’s condemnation and assurances.
India had earned a very bad name in international circles due to high degree of corruption but it appears that its reputation in this sphere has not improved, especially after rogues like Vijai Mallya and Nirav Modi have fled the country, having defrauded banks of thousands of crores. However, now, crimes against women, particularly the growing incidence of rapes of minors and the incidents and statements of various BJP leaders against minorities are also receiving international attention, as was proved by demonstrations held in London against the Prime Minister Modi during his recent trip to attend the Commonwealth Summit. Slogans and placards asking Modi to go back and demanding the he should stop making India a country of hatred, rape and crime marred the visit.
Commenting on absence of Modi’s reactions on the recent unfortunate instances of violence, the New York Times in an Editorial says “Modi considers himself a talented orator. Yet he loses his voice when it comes to speaking out about the dangers faced by women and minorities who are frequent targets of the nationalist and communal forces that are part of the base of his BJP”. The newspaper was highly critical of BJP’s attitude and support to the accused of the 8-year-old girl’s rape in J&K and commented that to read about what happened to her, who was held and abused for days was to “plumb the depths of human depravity”. NY Times further lamented that Modi belatedly condemned this and other grave recent happenings in broad generalities as “incidents being discussed since past two days”, the same way as he did when addressing cases in which vigilante groups affiliated with his political movement attacked and killed Muslims and Dalits who they falsely accused of killing cows.
Recent reports have revealed that hate speeches and actions by BJP netas have increased by nearly 500% in the country ever since BJP came to power four years ago, and this is really worrying. Though it was known that the new Government had a hidden agenda, particularly unfavourable, if not antagonistic to minorities, it was not expected that MPs, MLAs and even Chief Ministers would so brazenly speak against minorities, with their utterances invoking penalties under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code. Yet, in 75% of the instances, cases have not been registered and where they have, investigations have made little or no progress progress. Ironically, leaders who have been making highly inflammatory speeches, have been promoted by BJP instead of being reprimanded or admonished. This only endorses the commonly held view that hateful behaviour and pronouncements have the tacit support of the Central leadership, including the Prime Minister.
The choice of a well-known anti-Muslim and anti-Christian hater, Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister of UP was enough proof that the PM himself does not mind his Party and Government being seen as anti-minority. Before going on to become CM of UP, Yogi Adityanath had once remarked that if given a chance he would place statues of Hindu Goddesses in Muslim mosques, that for every Hindu girl marrying a Muslim man, they would take 100 Muslim girls in return and that for every Hindu man killed by a Muslim, they would kill 100 Muslim men. He had also attributed the communal riots in Western UP to the predominance of Muslims and said there was no place for them in areas in UP, where their population was over 35%. Anant Kumar Hegde, was made Union Minister after he made a most hateful remark that so long as there is Islam there would be terrorism and that if we were unable to end Islam, we would be unable to end terrorism. The list of BJP netas spitting venom against minorities and cow protectors indulging in goondaism against Muslims and Dalits is unending.
Referring to religion, Thomas Payne had said: “The world is my country, all mankind my brethren and to do good my religion” and Abraham Lincoln remarked that when he does bad he feels bad and when he does good he feels good and that is his religion. Will some of the fanatic BJP leaders learn to feel like these great gentlemen did? Let us hope they will before India can get a bad name as a country where minorities neither feel free nor safe.
(The author is a retired banker).
