Hindutva violence rises before elections in BJP-run states. Modi’s regime fails to condemn the supremacist ideology motivating the attackers. The BJP thrives on politics of hatred. It has been stoking hate and communal tensions in several states.
Fanning communal fires and inciting Hindutva zealots to attack minority communities, in particular Muslims, is integral to BJP’s brand of politics. It galvanizes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindutva support base fetching him votes. After all, he has made a career out of Muslim bashing.
The 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat occurred on his watch. Moreover, under him, BJP’s anti-Muslim narrative has come to define today’s India in which Muslims stand systematically marginalized.
Just recently, the northeastern state of Manipur saw some of the worst violence against its Christian community. The worst violence occurred when the BJP government returned to power after 15 years in 2017 and immediately gave the RSS free reign to radicalize the dominant Hindu tribe, which is now attacking minority Christians.
Over 3,000 Muslim residents of Gurugram and other areas near Delhi have fled their homes after mob violence instigated by Hindutva extremists from the ruling BJP’s fellow extremist groups, most notably the Bajrang Dal. Modi has still not commented on Gurugram.
His only comments on Manipur came in the wake of global outrage over viral videos of a mob parading two Christian women naked after allegedly gang-raping one of them.
Communal tensions in the BJP-ruled Indian state of Haryana remain high as the death toll rose to six on the third day of the clashes between Hindus and Muslims.
Violence erupted in the Nuh district when a procession armed to the teeth was taken out by radical Hindu extremist groups, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, passed through a Muslim-majority neighborhood.
Media reports say a video posted by Bajrang Dal activist Monu Manesar, wanted by the police for the lynching of two Muslim cattle traders last February in another part of the state triggered the clash. In it, he announced his participation in the procession.
Monu has regularly been posting videos celebrating attacks on Muslims accused of transporting or slaughtering cows, yet the police have failed to arrest him, believed to be protected by some within the BJP government.
The authorities took no action to prevent or stop the violence until arson and vandalism attacks spread to Gurugram, a major city close to New Delhi and a key business center. There a mosque was set ablaze and its deputy imam was murdered.
In another neighborhood, a 200-strong mob armed with sticks and stones looted several shops and torched a restaurant while chanting a religious slogan Jai Shri Ram. None of this was unintended as confirmed by an opposition politician Sitaram Yechury in a tweet.
Strongly condemning what happened in Haryana, he wrote, “The state government must stop patronizing private hate armies & punish the culprits.”
Yet Modi is famous in Western capitals as the leader of the world’s largest democracy, emboldening him to continue inflaming religious passions to win votes.
As India prepares for a general election between April and May next year, the country’s over 200 million Muslims as well as Christians will have to prepare to face more outbreaks of violence.
In less than a month, India is also going to host a G-20 summit in New Delhi, just 30km away from Gurugram. The world leaders in attendance should call out Modi for the rise of communal violence during his time in office.
Unfortunately, Western democracies have long made it clear that India’s value, as a counterbalance to China is more important than the well-being of millions of Muslims, Christians, and other minorities under the country’s Hindu nationalist regime.
