Regional Affairs

By N. P. Upadhyaya Kathmandu: India's tolerance level is at its lowest ebb. The people in "minorities" in India perhaps are feeling the worst with the advent of Prime Minister Modi who has many times exhibited the deep-rooted hatred that he has for Indian Muslims. It could be said that the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has thrived on the premise of the "hate the Muslims" slogan and practice. The Godhra (Gujrat, a State of India) incident wherein under Chief Minister Modi's express instructions or say commands hundreds of Muslims were burnt alive, as per Indian media reports, by the hooligans which logically encouraged the Western countries to impose a "Visa ban" to then Chief Minister Modi. However, the same developed West openly greeted Modi when he became the Prime Minister of India in 2014. Today's India, to recall, was ruled by the British East India Company which had granted "conditional independence" to the former British Colony-the present-day regional hooligan in South Asia. Film actress Kangana Ranawat believes that India got full independence only when Modi assumed power in Delhi. The Islamophobic filmy lady with no cultural and social standing was honored very recently for her "intimate" attachment with PM Modi. This must have some meaning indeed. The West may have benefitted from Prime Minister Modi's ascendance in India for some "strategic and political reasons and considerations", however, Modi's jump into New Delhi's power corridor came as a non-ending dark tunnel for the minorities in India more so to the Muslims. Nepal's sympathies are ever with the troubled minorities in India. Modi's coming to power in India, it could be presumed, must have come as a "black era" for the Indian Muslims and others, for example, the Dalits and the starving population. BJP led Hindutva gang has not only become a hazard to the Indian population but their erratic activities have also made a visibly negative impact/penetration on India's bilateral ties with Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal because these smaller countries of South Asia also have a sizeable population of Muslims. Nepal being predominantly a Hindu country, the forbearance for the followers of other religions is very high which is why Nepal has never witnessed communal riots as it happens now and then in India. India thus is a chaotic country. Yet a small clash in Nepal occurred at the time of the recent Chatth (worship of Sun God) in Janakpur in between the Hindus and local Muslims. Thanks the government's timely intervention that the clash could not take an ugly shape. India's "fanatic" Hindu society always thinks low and takes the Muslims as "inferior" second class citizens to the extent that India's fresh humiliating Cricket debacle with Pakistan was dumped on to the heads of an innocent Muslim cricketer. The Indian-Muslim-cricketer is a true Indian national but he was trolled by his colleagues and population and was blamed that he made India lose the match on the grounds of religion. Perhaps it is these shortcomings and meanness in the BJP controlled and trained India's Hindu society that minority Muslims more often than not "celebrate" as and when India is defeated by Pakistan or from any third country. And the spontaneous celebrations pinch the ruling elites which then orders Fatwa to the Muslims to go to Pakistan. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath is more vocal in telling his angered Muslim population to "go to Pakistan". CM Yogi is synonymous with Hindutva and thus how he may have been treating and behaving with the Muslims in his State is anybody's guess? India's Uttar Pradesh houses the majority of Indian Muslims. It could be these repeated humiliation/insults of the Indian Muslims that they have begun to take Pakistan as their next possible home if anything untoward happens to them in India. The latest victim of Modi's chronic Islamophobic mindset has been Salman Khurshid who is a distinguished Indian politician housed in the Indian National Congress. Khurshid is in Indian politics for decades and decades. Salman is an Oxford Graduate and commands respect and honor in the Indian National Congress. His fault is that he is a born Muslim and since he is a qualified personality so he at times writes books and ventilates his inner feelings on the unfolding religiopolitical events in his country, India. He has thus been freshly chastened in a very fierce and harsh manner by, most probably, a group of Hindu fundamentalists supposedly close to the BJP/RSS. It is not only him but a number of Muslim writers, scholars, academicians who have one way or the other paid the price of being Muslim in India. Even ace writer Arundhati Roy on occasions grilled and taken to task for the straightforward comments that she makes against the Indian government. Arundhati though is not a Muslim. Take, for example, Hamid Ansari, Vice President of India not in the so distant past was grilled by some Modi's paid and posted henchmen for his "opinions" in a book that Ansari had written. The stooge Godi media, mostly the followers of Hinduism, questioned the very nationalistic credentials of a person who was the former Vice President of India. Mohammad Hamid Ansari (b. 1937) was somewhat shocked by the Godhara incident and recalls in his book titled, "By Many a Happy Accident" that (sic) “I was part of a group of concerned citizens who called on PM Vajpayee to remonstrate and urge the government to take action. The Editors Guild of India [EGI] sent a fact-finding team to the state to report on the role of the media,” Ansari remembers while quoting distinguished editor BG Varghese, a member of the EGI team recording, “When we met Narendra Modi, he had no explanation to offer and showed no contrition.” Unapologetic India's Godi media took him to the task later to the utter dismay of Hamid Ansari. Ansari was also a career Indian diplomat. A Muslim by birth is tentatively a crime in India. This explains how the Muslims even occupying high ranks in Indian Union are being questioned and grilled in a humiliating manner. Salman Haidar, yet another Muslim who was India's foreign secretary at one time too was held suspect by the Hindu fanatics. Even President Zakir Hussain was held suspicious which speaks so many things unspoken and sheds light on India's downgoing level of "tolerance". Unfortunately, in India, the Muslims are tentatively taken as a proxy of the Pakistani establishment though it is not the fact. In addition, how scared are the Bollywood veterans like Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Sah Rukh Khan together with Nasiruddin Shah is anybody's guess! The Muslim actors are trolled at times by their fellow actors but with Hindu identity. Perhaps it is all these painful points put together, the Muslims, more so the Khans of Bollywood prefer to leave India for good with their entire family. Salman Khurshid is a foreign policy veteran who got certified when he headed India's foreign ministry at one time in the past. Al Jazeera, November 16, 2021, writes, "Saalman Khurshid published a book "Sunrise over Ayodhya: Nationhood in our Times" in which he compared Hindu nationalism under Prime Minister Modi to "extremists' groups" such as the ISIL. Indian Congress leader Salman (68) apparently has referred, as per Hindustan Times, to the Sanatan Dharma and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints now “being pushed aside by robust version of Hindutva, by all standards a political version similar to the jihadist Islam of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram of recent years.” The news outlet Jazeera further writes, "Hindu hardliners attacked and set fire to the home of the former foreign minister which is the latest incident of religious violence that critics say has been inflamed under Prime Minister Modi". And the critics in India are right in that after the introduction of Modi as Indian Prime Minister, communal hatred associated with religion have swelled not only in India but in the entire South Asian region. The aggrieved population in Nepal take PM Modi as the "Indian devil" that perhaps fits into his Islamophobic personality. Braving scathing criticisms from different political corners of India for his opinions made on Hinduism and Hindutva in the book, Salman retorts to his critics saying, as per ANI, " I have said (in my book) that the people who do such things don't belong to Hindu religion. Hindu religion is a beautiful religion that has given a fantastic culture to this country and I'm proud of it. The attack is not on me but the Hindu religion". Careful observation on Salman's statement to ANI does reveal that he is not only scared but has to admire a religion, hopefully against his own religion, that has hit him and his belief hard. Needless to say, a visibly petrified Salman Khurshid of a towering statue of the Indian political spectrum has to falsely(?) admit that the followers of the religion who have terrified him were practising the Hindu faith which is not only fantastic but a beautiful religion". Only an internally shaking Salman Khurshid could speak on these lines obviously he did so to save his life from further being distressed. This much could be drawn from his quivering statement. Hinduism and Hindutva have taken a new height in India the day Modi came to power in 2014 which got a further boost when the same Modi got re-elected in 2019. Since then, Hinduism and Hindutva have earned a bad name in the entire South Asian region although Hinduism is not a bad religion. However, the consoling part of the story is that the Hinduism that Nepal practices are far better than what the Indian BJP projects or upholds. Hindutva rigidity is completely absent in Nepal; one can say confidently. As stated earlier, broadmindedness is exceptionally high in Nepal. While Hindutva in India is used as a rigid and coercive political tool-power, it is totally absent in Nepal. Hindutva has become an instrument that could be equated with terror and horror for the minorities in India more so to the Muslims and the Dalits. Perhaps this is why they celebrate the Pakistani victory over India as and when the two meet at a Cricket stadium either in India or abroad. Pained by political colleague Salman being gyrated by a section of Indian critics, for example, Sashi Tharoor, a highly qualified Congress personality came to the rescue of this poor scholar and made his comments known through his Twitter account wherein he says, "This is disgraceful. He (Khurshid) is a statesman who has done India proud in international forums and always articulated a moderate, centrist, inclusive vision of the country domestically. The mounting levels of intolerance in our politics should be denounced by those in power". Tharoor was hinting at the BJP high command that has already become the synonym of hatred against the Indian minorities, the Muslims being the prime object. Yet Tharoor is himself a diehard Hindu, The rest is anybody's guess. To recall, when President Donald Trump was in Delhi for an official visit last year February 2020, the Muslims in Delhi had a very rough and tough time as many Muslims were either killed or maimed during the BJP's targeted campaign against the Muslims of Delhi. Unfortunately, President Trump kept a studied silence over the Delhi carnage for some "political-strategic" reasons. The Delhi horrifying incident though Trump saw for himself from very close quarters. The Deccan Herald dated November 13 quotes Mehbooba Mufti, a Kashmiri leader, defending Khurshids's opinion recorded in his freshly published book stating, "there is nothing wrong in comparing political parties with the groups killing people in the name of religion. She further accused the Rastriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP of hijacking Hindutva and Hinduism" and added that "Sanatan Dharma doesn't teach communalism". She added saying, "They feel that Hindutva and Hinduism are BJP and RSS which is not the case. " What the BJP and RSS are teaching the people is neither Hinduism nor Hindutva", Mufti summed up. Dr. Abhishek Singhvi, a Congressman too has tried to defend Salman Khurshid. Ashlin Mathew registers in his Twitter account and states: "The rabid mob which vandalized and burnt former Union Minister Salman Khurshid home in Nainital can be heard chanting 'Jai Shri Ram, "Jai Bajrangi' and "Desh ki Gaddaron ko, goli maaro salon ko' slogans in front of his house. This tentatively gives a slight inkling into what India is today. Yet another Indian citizenry, Samiullah Khan ventilates his feeling, "Horrific incident of Islamophobia in India: Extremist Goons attacked and vandalized the residence of former Union Minister of India Salman Khurshid. Earlier he criticized the Hindutva ideology! Even the ex-diplomat level officials from the Muslim community isn't safe in today's India. Reported Subir Bhaumik for the BBC dated 28 October, saying that Tripura (north-eastern state of India) remained tense following attacks on Mosques and properties owned by the Muslim population. Later a group of Advocates from India's Supreme Court visited Tripura to investigate the incident that had attacked Muslims and their Mosques released a report which alleged that it was a "targeted violence against Muslims". Putting all the threads together, what becomes clear is that India is now an Islamophobic country with no tolerance for the Minorities more so to the Muslims. That's all. The writer is himself a Hindu but doesn't believe in Hindutva.