PAKISTAN on Monday summoned the Indian Charge d’ Affaires at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to voice serious concerns over the widely reported open call by Hindutva proponents for carrying out genocide of Indian Muslims.
These violent hate speeches were made during the “Dharma Sansad” held at Haridwar, Uttarakhand from 17-20 December 2021.
The venomous outburst against Muslim minority came about ten days back and sparked condemnation by saner elements in India and the outside world but the silence adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister and Chief Minister of Uttarakhand speaks volumes about their posture and policies towards Muslims.
Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, has rightly pointed out that Gandhi’s birth anniversary is observed as the Day of Non-Violence but such hate speeches were delivered with immunity in his country.
However, all this is not unexpected when the Prime Minister, who is called butcher of Gujarat, pursues anti-Muslim policies and makes highly provocative remarks against the Muslim community even in public speeches.
This amounts to encouraging Hindu extremists to victimize minorities, especially Muslims on different pretexts like eating of cow meat or smuggling of cows.
In fact, demolition of mosques, withdrawal of permission for Muslims to offer prayers in open places in some states, anti-Muslim legislation by a number of states ruled by BJP and unprovoked attacks on Muslims by Hindu mobs often under official patronage point to the dangerous level of repression of Muslims.
People are beaten by mobs for being Muslim or for selling items in Hindu-dominated areas and are forced to chant Hindu slogans.
In 2019, a fact-checker website that counted “hate crimes” in India reported that more than 90% of victims in the past 10 years were Muslims.
The growing number of videos that go viral on social media depicting violence against Muslims clearly shows that the Muslims face gravest danger in India despite being the largest religious minority in the country and that too in a country that claims to be secular.
The situation demands that the international community should hold India accountable for systematic human rights violations against all minorities particularly Muslims.
