IN a recent write up appeared in the East Asia Forum, Robin Jeffry said, “From a young age, Modi has been a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu-supremacist organization whose inspiration stems from Italian fascism of the 1920s. The social and cultural goals of the RSS call for the creation of a state in which the strong central rule of a Hindu supremacist party and its leader bring about the rebirth of a golden Hindu civilization.” Robin Jeffrey is Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University and La Trobe University.
Whatever thoughts he expressed in his write-up are very logical and rational. Mr. Modi is no doubt working very hard for changing the Indian society into a purely Hindu society; a society where no community belonging to some other religious school of thought would be allowed to survive. If all goes well according to the RSS desires and the planning of the BJP under the guidance and command of Mr. Modi, we would find not even a single Sikh, Muslim or even a Christian in the country in the next twenty years. Demolition of ancient mosques, Churches and Gurdwaras and their conversion into Hindu temples seems the first step to that destination.
Last month on 9th February, according to Al-Jazeera, at least five people were killed and dozens others injured during a protest sparked by the demolition of a mosque and of a religious school in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand. Reports say that on 8th February, these buildings in Haldwani Town were bulldozed by the Municipal authorities without issuing any prior notices. On the other hand the government officials blamed that the two buildings were built without getting proper permission. But the local people are of the opinion that in Haldwani Town not even a single building is constructed after getting permission from the Municipal authorities as it is a very old area. They say that if it were a building of a Mandir, it would never have been demolished so ruthlessly. Whatever is being done against the worship-places of religious minorities in India, is the part of an ‘officially-supervised’ move against the minorities there; it is not the result of any ‘hatred’ among different communities as Hinduism never preaches hatred; it is simply the result of an effort of winning the political-battle by using religion as a weapon.
In the first week of May 2023, the Indian state of Manipur witnessed a horrible wave of violent attacks on churches which resulted in demolition, destruction and even burning of around 249 churches in just first 36 hours. Archbishop Lumon expressed his deep grief over the silence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the cluelessness of Interior Minister, Amit Shah, and indecisiveness of the local government’ regarding that wave of violence. Same were the reservations of the Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church with reference to the dumbness of the authorities. He said, “It is shameful that even though Christian churches have been destroyed and thousands have been left homeless, those at the helm of the administration are still not ready to condemn such activities or reject the rioters.”
Reports say that it is the RAW behind all such brutal activities and this organization is under the direct command of the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Modi. Even in India people say that RAW no more means The Research & Analysis Wing, it is the Rogue Assassins Wing of the BJP. The recent assassination plot of US citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is the worst example of the heinous activities of this organization. According to a report published in Aljazeera, the US Justice Department accused in a statement that an Indian government official was the mastermind behind the assassination plan of US citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York. The report said, “The suggestions from US officials that India might have been involved in an attempt at an extrajudicial killing on the soil of a friendly nation come six months after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused New Delhi of involvement in the assassination of another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, near Vancouver.” The New York-based lawyer, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is a dual US-Canadian citizen. He is the legal counsel and spokesman for Sikhs for Justice, a US-based Sikh separatist group. His murder plan was exposed last year in November.
Whereas Hardeep Singh Nijjar was an Indian born in the district of Jalandhar. In 1997, he moved to Canada and soon made a name for himself as a vocal advocate for the creation of Khalistan. The BBC said about him in a report that ‘he was a peaceful advocate for Sikh independence and a man who cared deeply about his community.’ He was shot and killed by two gunmen wearing dark clothes with hoods outside a Sikh temple in a Vancouver suburb on a June summer evening last year. After a very deep and detailed investigation, the Government of Canada accused India of being linked to the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. It was also officially stated that the murder of a Sikh leader on Canadian soil might fuel a significant rift between the two countries. Hardeep was murdered, reports say, that at the time of his death, he had been planning a non-binding referendum for Sikhs living in British Columbia. The demand of that referendum was the creation of Khalistan; an independent Sikh state in India. In short, the RAW is doing all its best to convert India into a purely Hindu state under the guidance and command of Mr. Modi. It seems a matter of just a few years that we would not find even a single Muslim, Sikh or Christian living an honourable life in that Hindu society.
—The writer is Principal of a Government College and senior columnist, based in Multan.
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