Daily Times

If Mr. Modi’s first term (2014-19) consolidated his position through hate agenda directed at the minorities, especially the Muslims, the overwhelming majority he earned for the second term this yearis perceived by the RSS-led Hindutva forces as a carte blanch to pursue its agenda to next level of terror. Not only public lynching of Muslims has intensified it has spread in the length and breadth of the country. A set pattern is visible; a victim is identified whether a man or woman and Hindutva mob surrounds him or her. A lame excuse is made to attack the victim and it is up to the mood of the perpetrators to kill the victim or spare him or her with broken limbs. Sadly, in many cases the policemen were found to be mere spectators.

This state of apathy points to a dangerous trend in the country which encourages the non-state actors to spread hatred against the Muslims with the connivance or at least knowledge of the state machinery. Much to their peril, objective Indian journalists and conscientious civil society leaders have raised the alarm towards official apathy while social media has been showing pictures and videos of mob lynching with impunity. Obviously, such a situation has been created with a plan which has been there in the RSS closets for the past many decades. RSS publications are full of hate material asserting Hindu supremacy and subservience of minorities, especially Muslims. The untouchable Hindus (Dalits) are equally at the receiving end. According to the human rights organizations, over 200 million Dalits (untouchables), 172 million Muslims, 30 million Sikhs and 25 million Christians are seriously vulnerable to the Hindu nationalist onslaught against the minorities.

The so-called nationalist agenda of RSS is rooted in the creation of fear psychosis to such an extent that Dalits, Muslims or other minorities may not dare to raise their voices or assert for their rights. Imagine what would be the state of the country where minorities would be pushed to the wall; forced to live in squalid conditions in ghettos and then claim greatness for the country in the international arena. While Muslims may be the worst sufferers, the fate of other minorities is equally precarious. A cursory look at any Indian newspapers’ matrimonial advertisements would be shocking enough to find casteism at its peak, especially the upper caste Brahmans invariably desiring match for their boys and girls from the same caste. That lynching of low caste (untouchables) for touching an upper caste Hindu or getting water from the upper caste locality is normal, mostly in the countryside.

The creation of Hindu nationalism on the false pretext of gaining the past glory lost at the hands of foreign invaders, directed at Muslims from Afghanistan and Central Asia, has a clear bias against the Muslims. The Muslims of present day India have to pay the price of their “forefathers” in the 21st Century even if they do not carry a single gene of theirs. The situation is getting so serious by the day that one Muslim leader has been quoted by the Indian media as saying that “cows are safer than Muslims”.

“Ghar Wapsi” (home returning) is another ploy employed by the RSS subsidiary phalanxes to reconvert Muslims to their “original caste”. It is in the common knowledge that a substantive number of Muslims were converts from Hindu religion. The number of upper caste Hindus converting to Islam was very small as compared to lower caste Hindus as after conversion they felt socially secure in a Muslim rule. However, this is going to change in the second Modi government. According to RSS plans “Ghar Wapsi” (home returning) will not only stop new conversions but also encourage a substantive number of Muslims to convert to their original religion. In this regard, silence of major Muslim religious parties such as Jamiat Ulema Hind (JUH) or Jamaat -e- Islami is surprising but understandable. These are bad times for the Muslims and other minorities and any emotional step would only enhance the agony of the minorities. The Muslims and Dalits are helplessly watching the role of opposition and secularists, which has further emboldened the Hindu Fascists. Similarly, their performance in opposing the revocation of Article 370 and 35A, which allowed special status to Indian Occupied Kashmir, was mute and disappointing even for the pro-Indian Kashmiri leadership.

Mr. Modi has started a dangerous game in his own country and in the neighbourhood. He has forgotten the simple logic of power play; you may start the war but you cannot predict its end

Coming back to fear psychosis, the RSS led dispensation has used Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) as a pretext or precursor to suppress the Muslims all over India. Why Kashmir? This could be a logical question for multiple reasons. First, there is complete alienation amongst the Kashmiris against the Indian occupation. Even pro-Indian Kashmiri leaders are repenting over the folly of their elders for trusting Indian leaders false promises. By making “an example” out of Kashmiris by complete lockdown, merciless killings, incarceration of thousands of youths, the message to rest of the Muslims in India would be loud and clear– to accept “Hindu domination”, a phenomenon that caused partition of British India. However, if by applying repressive tactics Modi government has calculated that Kashmiris would submit to the Indian rule then the Hindutva forces have overestimated their optimism and underestimated the Kashmiri alienation.

Second, Mr. Modi’s repression in IOK and lynching of common Muslims is not going to bring the desired results for the Hindutva forces. Once the Hindutva ideology deprives the Muslims of their sense of belonging to the state then there will be no-holds barred situation in the country. If Pakistan can come into being due to narrow-mindedness displayed by the then Indian National Congress leadership, the current situation of fear and humiliation would unleash not only the pent up grouse of the Muslims, it would create a volcanic situation throughout the country when Dalits and other minorities would rise up and demand their rights.

Third, in such a precarious situation Mr. Modi’s lockdown of IOK may add fuel to the fire especially when he has closed the door of diplomacy for Pakistan. He has already started a low-intensity war along the Line of Control and may be contemplating repeat of “Balakot” in the coming days. At a time when the Kashmiris in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) are agitating along with Pakistanis and becoming impatient for action any miscalculation by either side may plunge the two countries into a war whose outcome would be devastation, to say the least.

Mr. Modi has started a dangerous game in his own country and in the neighbourhood. He has forgotten the simple logic of power play; you may start the war but you cannot predict its end. American experience in Afghanistan is enough proof of this logic. In fact, Mr. Modi’s actions must be mouth-watering for the Daesh/ISIS who would be thanking their stars for the “golden opportunity” provided by the Hindu fascists. Ironically, when 9/11 happened American security agencies had all the pieces of jigsaw puzzle but they could not put them in place. Mr. Modi has himself created those pieces for the Jigsaw puzzle to unravel India unless sanity prevails and forces of reason reassert themselves to retrieve the situation from going out of control.

The writer is former ambassador of Pakistan to Iran and UAE