Daily Times

Since the BJP led-fundamentalist government has taken control in India, fumes of hatred have been getting stronger and stronger.

As morals erode, society carves its path to the age of decadence. India, a dreamed secular bliss, is now shattering to its knees where morals and ethics of secularism are being ripped off. Human ethos and morals appear to be disappearing in the Indian societal structure as hatred has become a common man’s tenet.

The country known to the world as the largest “democracy” is now in shambles as its leaders spew and promote hatred to minorities, particularly Muslims.

UP Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, is one prominent effigy in this rank. Even before elections, he scoffed Muslims as “Green Virus,” based on which later, he was banned from campaigning. The country’s xenophobia is going on the utmost heights.

Recently, Aljazeera reported that in central and northern India, Hindus have shown concern over the growing population of Muslims. A right-wing group in India demanded population control law because of the long-held belief that Muslims would outnumber Hindus. This is not something novel in India. Since the BJP led-fundamentalist government has taken control in India, fumes of hatred have been getting stronger and stronger.

Another emblem of hatred, Vinay Katiyar, the BJP member of the parliament, passed repugnant comments in an interview to India’s renowned news channel, Asian News International (ANI) that Muslims should not even be allowed to live in India. He further added that Muslims should go to Bangladesh and Pakistan. With this attitude of the policymakers in the assembly, no wonder there might be a time that the Indian sacred document, its constitution, even get Hindufied and would be revised.

This is not just it. While addressing the audience, another BJP extremist legislator in Uttar Pradesh, Vikram Saini, said that Hindustan was only for Hindus.

Such beliefs were being taught from the very beginning as Muslims were being portrayed as occupiers and invaders.

The country known to the world as the largest “democracy” is now in shambles as its leaders spew and promote hatred to minorities, particularly Muslims

Verbal hate is also backed by violent physical actions. Back in October of 2015, Indian BJP MPs beat Muslim in Kashmir assembly. To target Muslims, even the right-wing Hindus have now formed militias under the banner of cow protection squad and other such sinister vendettas.

After Kashmir’s legislative murder, Vikram Saini once again came up with his amoral thinking and blatantly advised young people to marry fair-skinned Kashmiri females. These remarks were appreciated by the masses as the Twitter blasted with acknowledging these derogatory remarks. Not only this but “patriotism pop” has erupted as a new genre of music in India, which urges people to claim Kashmir, buy land there and marry there.

In January of 2018, an eight-year-old girl was abducted and raped in Khatua District of Jammu and Kashmir. The court held the conviction of several Hindus. Later, few fanatics from Hindu community held a rally under the label of “Hindu Ekta March” to save rapists because they were Hindus. India Society owes its debauchery to its modern media. Its media, films and TV industry seem to be cultivating such notions now. Sexualized behaviour, inappropriate jokes and groping can commonly be found in most of the TV shows or films. Now MODIfied media is openly engaged in spreading hate into the minds of the common. Modi’s anxiety can be seen through its controlled media as ethnonationalism is preached regularly on prime-time talk shows. Recently, in the wake of revamping and praising image, a biopic of Modi was released just after the Indian General elections of 2019.

A famous French philosopher, writer and diplomat, Joseph de Maistre, often regarded that a country gets the leaders it deserves. It seems that Indian society has got what it deserved. The Pakistani side should be pragmatic and not hope for any lucid or sane acts from its neighbour. They have taken the leap of decadence, and the only path is of more infernal depths.

Obtrusive minds are steering India to a path of decadence; its masses are losing the sanity. Amoral comments, acts and behaviour seem to be the only wind in Indian outskirts now. Nevertheless, the question remains whether it would grow more and more? Will the Indian legacy fall into the hands of amateur racist minds?

If these notions grew more and the society saw the physical manifestation of such a thought process, it won’t just be the Indian Muslims or religious minorities that find themselves in danger. It would be the morals and humanity that become jeopardised.

The writer is a research associate at the Islamabad Institute of Conflict Resolution