Fragile democracies of the third world countries like India are vulnerable to vision-less populism and often cause severe damage to their vital national interests. Diverting public attention from the most important issues to the least ones is perhaps the biggest drawback of emergent democracies.
Came up with ideals of liberal economics to ensure sustainable and inclusive development, Narendra Modi started selling hatred and prejudice when he had failed in fulfilling his election promises. Being a good marketer, he exploited the religious sentiments of right-wing Hindus very well and put all the burden of his failures on Muslims.
RSS took the benefit of the situation and started resuscitating its long-standing idea of Hindus Raj (rule).
I continue to warn international community that Modi's Hindu Supremacist ideology will target all minorities.Right now prime target is Kashmiri Muslims & Muslims in India; but intolerance & targeting is spreading & will spread to other minority communitieshttps://t.co/dK0473FKEc
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) March 7, 2020
The BJP-RSS Nexus has pushed the whole of India into the fire. The contentious citizenship bill is bringing to the country nothing but shame and ignominy. The mob attacks on peaceful protestors by RSS hoodlums in New Delhi took the lives of at least 50 people. It was a premeditated attack ignited by local BJP leaders on the behest of the establishment. The role of Delhi police during the whole episode was really despicable.
Read more: Modi’s India: Govt bans TV channels covering Delhi riots, then backtracks
Instead of protecting the innocent, they facilitated the attackers. Many videos are being circulated on social and mainstream media where one can easily see the cops breaking CCTV cameras to save the perpetrators.
Moreover, according to a report, issued by New York Times on Thursday that Delhi police had deliberately targeted the protestors and urged the Hindus mobs to join. The report also accuses Modi government of politicizing the police. Police stopped international and even local media to cover the incident. The incident cannot be called Hindus versus Muslims or majority versus minority rather it is state-sponsored terrorism against its people.
Today’s India is not the India of Gandhi and Nehru. From day one, both leaders had realized that India had never been a Hindu state neither it could be. India is a country of diversity. Its society is divided on the basis of culture, religion, caste, and language.
Hence, it can be integrated into one nation only through pluralism, equality, rule of law, democracy and inclusiveness. This is why the founding fathers erected the foundation of this nation on the principles of secularism. But, the current establishment is destroying the very fabric of Indian secularism which could inflict serious damage to national integration.
Secondly, India is an emerging power and its international clout is being severely affected by myopic policies of BJP. In the changing global power dynamics, the United States sees India as a rising regional power to contain China in Asia. For this, Washington has been striving to make India a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and it cannot be possible without India’s auspicious international image.
https://twitter.com/ashoswai/status/1238386415056142342
Modi-Shah’s bigoted policies are making it very hard for the West and the United States to fight India’s case at the United Nations.
Thirdly, the marginalization of Indian Muslims may irk the Muslim world. Gulf countries are India’s major trading partners. India receives 35 billion dollars in foreign remittance from the gulf countries. Moreover, KSA has decided to invest 100 billion dollars in various projects in India.
Currently, the penchant of gulf countries is toward Modi due to their business interests but in long run the growing discrimination against Muslims will not let them to remain silent. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran’s supreme leader slammed India over Dehli’s riots and urged Modi to stop the massacre. The anti-Muslims policies of Modi led BJP are pushing the country in isolation.
The most alarming thing is that the state silence on Muslim’s persecution may give a chance to global jihadists to step in. As ISIS has already warned India of revenge. It could give space to global jihadists to diffuse their activities and exploit the situation. At this critical juncture, the country cannot afford further catastrophes.
Stability and peace are prerequisites of development. With blood and fire, no nation can taste the fruits of prosperity. Indian economy, which was growing at a pace of five to six percent in the last four years sharply plunged to 4.7 percent in January 2020. FDI dropped for the first time in the last six years, dipping by 1% to $44.37 billion.
In the last few months due to the anti CAA protests, Indian’s E-commerce businesses have suffered a loss of three billion dollars. According to a report of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), almost 11 million Indians have lost their jobs during Modi tenure. Only in Delhi, riots have led to property and business losses of over Rs 1,000 crores.
In all this episode, who is losing? Undoubtedly India, on the hands of its own leaders.
It not all about the marginalization of Muslims rather the suppression of Indians. Today, it is the Muslim’s turn. Tomorrow, who will be the next? Dalit, Sikh, Christian or Jains?
Suppression, instead of unification further creates secessionist tendencies. The dominance of one class, caste, culture or religion over others cannot Integrate the people rather wide the gulf which hollow the foundations of the state. It is the inclusiveness, tolerance, brotherhood, love, and rule of law which ensure the longevity of states.
Read more: Indian Muslims say ‘can’t trust anyone now’
Narendra Modi led BJP has been proved too weak to rule and it is high time for the Indian people to bring some sane minds to their power corridors and ensure that a weak man will never rule India again lest the country would again go back into seventeen century.
Syed Usama Shirazi is a freelance columnist based in Islamabad. He can be reached at usamasherazi129@gmail.com. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.