Bahri Karam Khan
THE track what Indian ruling elites have opted to travel on is leading to nowhere but to the country’s annihilation. India got emancipated as a secular state and its constitution also defines it as such. Thus, it can survive only when it stands secular. Its founding leaders Mahatma Gandhi, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru and subsequent Congress leaders genuinely had the pride of its being a secular state. The Congress party with secular narrative prevailed upon Indian politics for decades and, so long as it stood in power, India posed charming face before the global communities. For a state like India, demographically featured with pluralism and diversity, nothing other than secularism does suit. And, it is secularism indeed that has, so far, gone a long way in maintaining its integrity. Unfortunately, however, three decades back, the political landscape got infested with Hindu nationalism when the current ruling BJP resorted to the politics of religiosity for simple reason that without the same it couldn’t compete the secular Congress. In December 1992, it demolished historic Babri Mosque sorrowful scenes of which the Muslims would never be able to forget. The BJP, that hardly could have a couple of seats in Lok Sabha by 1980s, via exploiting anti-Muslim passions of extremist Hindus voters, eventually ascended to power.
The BJP, it should be kept in mind, is political wing of the cluster of right-wing hardcore militant organizations including inter alia RSS and VHP labelled as Sang Parivar. They all are champions of the fascist ‘Hindutva ideology’ put forward by a Hindu bigot Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, back in 1923. Hindutva is major form of Hindu nationalism which, at the core, is anti-Muslim. The Nationalist Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), the predecessor of ruling BJP, was founded by Syama Prasad Mukherjee, who together with Savarkar is known as ‘father’ of Hindu nationalism in India. Hence, implementation of Hindutva agenda is BJP’s topmost priority. It was this spirit in view that the premier Narendra Modi-led BJP’s government, in its first spell of power in 2014 onwards, embarked on steering India out of a secular state to a purely Hindu state. It is the same butcher Modi that had blood bath of hundreds of Muslims in Gujarat when he was the state Chief Minister there in 2002.
His first tenure was therefore featured with many anti-Muslim actions. To quote a few, cow slaughtering was banned in all the states (save a few) and, on mere allegation of violation, many Muslims and Dalits were lynched with no action taken against culprits. Triple talaq (divorce), an eminent provision of Muslim family laws, was criminalized. Muslims related names of places were changed inter alia including the historic city of Allahabad that was renamed as Prayag and it was planned to change other such names including Ahmadabad. And, in his second tenure, the disciple of Savarkar turned even more gruesome for the Muslims. Through the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have been allowed citizenship provided they are non-Muslims. Imagine, the citizenry is conditioned with religion; what a joke? Alongside, National Register of Citizens (NRC) is to be maintained and whosoever fails to prove their bona fide citizenship __ obviously the Muslims for having no documentary evidence __ may be disenfranchised.
The Indian Supreme Court’s flawed and biased ruling to build Ram temple on site of the razed Babri Mosque and laying its foundation by Modi in person is another landmark for secular India to turn into Hindu Rashtra where majoritarianism and authoritarianism would be the supreme laws and norms of the society. Through it, is conveyed an emphatic message to Muslims either to shun living in the rashtra or adapt to Hindutva culture. And, thus, it is another blot added to the blotted face Modi already has. Then, see its bizarre and draconian action in IoK too. Its special constitutional status has been done away with and further steps whatever needed for changing demography of this Muslim majority state in favour of India have accordingly been taken. Alongside, under complete lockdown, holocaust of armless Kashmiris is going on. Such Nazian act will however inflame further the already sizzling fire in the valley.
These are what Hindu nationalist government has done so far and, consequently, the Gandhian and Nehruvian secular India is transforming into the Sarvakarian and Mookerjian Hindu Rashtra with intolerance as its hallmark. And victims to such unprecedented Hindu chauvinism are the non-Hindu minorities viz Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and the low caste Dalits. Particularly, for Muslims, the situation has turned horrifying to an extent beyond which they are unable to afford bigotry any further. Apparently, no option remains with 180 million Muslims but to demand a ‘safe-haven’ in the Hindu Rashtra. This is despite India already having to counter serious uprisings in many of its states. Apart from Kashmir; Sikhs’ movement for autonomous Khalistan is an open secret. In other states like Assam, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, too, insurrections have been going on since long. In such critical condition, the de jure secular India can, by no means, afford to get converted into the de facto theocratic India. It is for these reasons the intelligentsia from within and outside have got convinced that Modi is swiftly driving the Rashtra towards disintegration and he is likely to turn another Mikhail Gorbachev on the score.
—The writer is a retired officer of Provincial Management Service, KP.
