Anti-Muslim hate speech rose by 62% in the second half of 2023, averaging almost one incident per day, according to Washington-based research. India Hate Lab documented 668 hate speech incidents targeting Muslims in 2023, 255 of which occurred in the first half of the year opens a new tab, while 413 took place in the last six months of 2023.
498 (75%) of the events took place in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)–ruled states, union territories (administered by the BJP-led central government), and the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi (police and public order comes under the purview of the BJP-led central government).
The Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance, comprising almost two dozen Hindu religious organizations, has acknowledged the lack of religious motivation in Bangladesh.
The alliance said it had counted 278 Hindu properties vandalized by mobs. Still, its secretary general, Gobinda Pramanik, told VOA that mobs attacked “five to seven times more” Awami League-supporting Muslim households after August 5.
“Almost all were politically motivated attacks. In the Indian media, they falsely termed them as communal anti-Hindu attacks. In Bangladesh, we do not have any communal tension between Muslims and Hindus,” Pramanik said by telephone.
When the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was formed in 1925, the leaders were clear on their agenda. Having Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy as their model, they would see the Muslims as second-class citizens. B.S. Moonje, of the Hindu Mahasabha, returning from Italy, advocated a fascist model to start an armed fight against the Muslims. Italian Fascist Youth Movement, the Balilla (8–15‐year‐old boys) impressed him. Even the English ruling class helped Savarkar, with their plans. In 1903, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and his older brother Ganesh Savarkar founded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Nashik.
The idea was to produce a disciplined force like Mussolini did in Italy. Now, the disciples of Moonje are running the RSS and BJP, who aim to do an ethnic cleansing. Muslims comprise 14% of the population, while more than 80% of voters are Hindus. BJP is not targeting Muslim voters to win elections. They aim to do hate-mongering against the Muslims, which will earn them more Hindu votes.
In central administration, BJP had only one Muslim, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, as a minister in 1998. He is no longer in any position in the party. There are no Muslim MPs in the BJP. Except for Kerala, no Muslim governors exist in any state: no President, Vice President, Army Chief, Election Commissioner, or high government positions. NRC/CAA was passed into law to target the Muslims. BJP maintains a fierce propaganda against the Muslims and the minorities.
Subendhu Adhikary, a BJP West Bengal leader who is trying to unseat Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress, is throwing all types of anti-Bangladesh filthy rhetorics in social media to radicalize his Hindu constituency to follow him. He is spewing non-stop hate speeches and spreading all kinds of misinformation about Muslims. The Muslims will surpass the Hindu population, stockpiling arms in their homes, and they do 70% of the criminal activities, to name a few. He is urging the Hindus not to sell or rent properties to Muslims. This anti-Muslim stance is expected to garner him a majority of Hindu votes, which will allow him to beat Mamata.
To counter Subendhu, Mamata came out with rhetoric asking the UN to send peacekeeping forces to Bangladesh to save the Hindus. It is ironic how politicians using the sprawling misinformation industry in India could try to subjugate a neighboring state that is struggling in the aftermath of a bloody uprising. Not only did they accommodate the fleeting fascist Hasina, but now they resorted to annihilating the neighbor with misinformation and their support from the diaspora.
In UP, the largest state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath states that the Muslim population is growing so fast as to tilt the equilibrium against the Hindus. He says, “We must keep a close eye” on this issue. He is installing fear, saying that Hindus will become minorities in the state in the blink of an eye.
Muslims are a vote bank for the Congress party. In UP, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party; in Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav; in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee; in Karnataka, Telangana Congress; in Gujarat, Congress party; and Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar of Shiv Shena. They have been voting for the Hindu leaders. Muslims feel helpless in India. They vote for anyone against the BJP.
It used to be the politicians using provocative language against the Muslims; now, the people serving the administration and the judiciary do not feel anything to tow the lines of the politicians.
Modi and the BJP are the same groups that are beating the drums against the minority suffering in Bangladesh. How genuine it is; only posterity will decide.
*Ghulam M. Suhrawardi is the Publisher of South Asia Journal.
December 20, 2024
The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.
