Islamabad, September 23, 2023 (PPI-OT):Modi’s Janata Party (BJP) threatens India’s secularist Constitution and its future as a democratic nation and Modi’s Hindu nationalist ‘Hindutva’ agenda promotes intolerance counter to India’s pluralistic traditions.
According to a Kashmir Media Service report, discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act and Anti-Conversion laws have attacked rights of Muslims and Christians. Hate speech against Muslims/ immigrants flourishes. Anti-minority acts of terrorism have grown at an alarming rate across India, especially against Muslims. With open calls for genocide of Muslims by Hindutva monks, hate speech and hate crimes against Muslims have become endemic, it added.
It said in February 2023, two Muslim men were accused of ‘cow smuggling,’ abducted and set ablaze by members of the pro-Hindutva Bajrang Dal. It said murderers were hailed as heroes and since November 2022, a coalition of right-wing Hindu nationalist groups has been touring Maharashtra, delivering communally charged hate speeches against Muslims and no action has been taken against the agitators.
The report said Hindu majoritarian Hindutva ideology of government resulted in bias in the justice system. In August 2022, it said, the BJP government approved early release of eleven men (Hindus) sentenced to life in prison for gang rape/ murder during 2002 Gujarat pogrom/ massacres.
The Dalits community (untouchables), it said, is at the bottom of a rigid caste-based social hierarchy, with violence against Dalits increasing since Modi came to power (2014). In July 2022, it said, a Dalit boy was beaten to death by his upper-caste teacher for drinking water from a pot that was exclusively meant for upper-castes. Under so-called anti-terrorism laws, journalists detained for reporting anti-Muslim incidents, it lamented.
Press Freedom Index of Reporters without Borders (RSF) ranked India 150th out of 180 nations, a major decline. Police routinely arrest journalists and human rights activists in IIOJK. Modi government has banned BBC documentary, ‘India: The Modi Question,’ which implicates Modi in the 2002 anti-Muslim genocidal massacres in Gujarat. Congress party leader, Rahul Gandhi, has been convicted of trumped-up charges of ‘defamation’ of Modi, expelled from parliament, and prevented from running in upcoming 2024 elections. Though the court gave him some relief but Modi government is turning India into an ‘electoral autocracy’ rather than a constitutional democracy.
Genocide Watch recommended: –
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues should investigate India’s discrimination against Muslims and report to the UN Human Rights Council. Indian Supreme Court should appoint an Independent Commission to investigate the Anti-Muslim pogroms of 2020 as well as continuing anti-Muslim lynchings.
Indian Army and police who committed crimes in Kashmir should be prosecuted. Prime Minister Modi should order BJP leaders to stop inciting anti-Muslim violence. International universities should stand in solidarity with Indian academic institutions. Journalists around the world should report with alarm on Modi’s attacks on India’s free press.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org