New York
Opinion pieces in leading U.S. publications have lashed out at Indian celebrities for their hypocrisy in crying out loud over the killing in police custody of George Floyd, an African-American man, after remaining completely silent when police-backed Hindu fanatics massacred Muslims in India recently.
Writing in The Washington Post, Rana Ayyub, an Indian journalist and an author, said many Indians found that voicing outrage over Floyd’s murder was a safe cause, and referred to Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra’s instagram expressing her pain and anger while sharing the victim’s last words, “Please, I can’t breathe”.
“But where have these celebrities been when Indian Muslims have been systematically targeted by a majoritarian regime and a prejudiced legal system,” she pointedly asked.
“As an Indian Muslim, I see the use of #BlackLivesMatter not as an extension of real solidarity, but as a reflection of the moral disfigurement of a population that looks the other way when its own minorities are discriminated against and lynched. Where were they when, during the Delhi carnage in February, police officials thrashed and beat to death Muslim men while demanding they chant the national anthem?
“Do (Ms.) Chopra and (industrialist Ratan) Tata even know their names? What about solidarity with the 15-year-old who was lynched for wearing a Muslim cap? Where was the outrage when a cabinet minister honoured a group of killers who lynched a young Muslim man?
Ms. Ayyub added, “In Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, Modi revoked the special autonomous status, leaving the valley in a state of military lockdown and isolation that has generated multiple human rights abuses.
“Soon after the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed, the Modi government pushed for the implementation of the National Register of Citizens, which has sought to delegitimize and erase Muslims in India. Students and activists have been attacked on university campuses. —APP
