13, September 2017 India’s mafia, Modi’s shame
India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has become victim to its “deadly embrace” with the RSS wing of the party. Much like the US, the duo has unleashed a growing intolerance that threatens the very foundation of its democracy.
For example, the sanctity of cows seems far more important than the welfare of its poor and low cast castaways.
While cows get a free pass. bullocks are not so lucky. India has now become the largest exporter of beef in the world employing millions of workers and generating $4 billion in profit.
Although the Supreme Court suspended Modi’s government ruling outlawing the killing of cows, low caste Hindus and Muslims have been targeted because they have traditionally engaged in the meat and leather industry.
In most cities cows have the right of passage, their emaciated bodies wondering the streets ingesting anything that comes their way, including plastics, to satisfy their hunger pangs.
To soften Modi’s image, India’s film censor board, headed by a Bharatiya Janata Party stalwart, ruled that references to “cows”, “Hindu India,” “Hindutva view of India” — meaning Hindu nationalism — and “Gujarat, be cut.
Modi’s chief surrogate is Yogi Adityannath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, a Hindu warrior who has declared a fatwa on all Muslims calling them “a crop of two-legged animals that has to be stopped” shouting at one rally, “we are all preparing for religious war!” This mimics the language used by the Hutus calling the Tutsis “cockroaches” in the Rwandan genocide or Trump calling Hispanics crossing our border, “murderers and rapists”.
The implications for India’s democracy are chilling and fraught with the uncertainty.
The recent murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, a fierce critic of rising Hindu-nationalist militancy is further evidence of growing intolerance of an independent media. “The message to journalists and all dissenters is loud and clear,” tweeted Siddhartha Bhatia, founding editor of the Indian online news site, The Wire. “We are watching you and one day we will get you.” Anti-Muslim hate crimes have risen a staggering 10-fold since Modi came to power in 2014.
Fortunately some concerned Indians are fighting back.
A caravan of peace activists has arrived in the capital, New Delhi to take part in a month-long journey across India to highlight the rise of lynching and violence against Muslims, Dalits and other minority groups. Led by activist Harsh Mander, the activists are visiting victims of hate crimes
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