BJP Extends Sangh Parivar’s Muslim Eradication Strategy to the National Level
Aided by a major section of the police, judiciary and the media, combined with the silent complicity of the opposition parties averse to upsetting their Hindu voters, Sangh Parivar goons armed with guns, rods and stones have a field day attacking and looting Muslims in the national capital
Hindu bigotry is the new normal in India. Anyone standing up to the might of the Hindu right-wing is either attacked into submission or killed by the Hindu street brigade, with the luckier ones being jailed by the police with a heap of non-bailable charges slapped on him/her. The police no longer shy about taking sides with the attackers; the architects of the upcoming, full-fledged Hindu Rashtra, and the ‘mainstream’ media have already submitted completely to the diktats of the ruling fascists, mostly in exchange for monetary benefits and sops.
What happened in Delhi yesterday when Hindu extremists carried out a pre-planned, cold-blooded attack on peaceful protestors, majority of them Muslims, is incomparable in magnitude to the anti-Muslim Gujarat riots of 2002 or the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi in 1984 or the Muslim massacre in Nelli, in 1983. Yet, a marked difference this time compared to the countless anti-Muslim riots crafted and executed by the right-wing Hindu extremists groups was the alarming complicity of the administration and the media.
Videos have already emerged of police aiding, directing and sometimes even joining the protestors with protection and logistic support. This is not the first time that Delhi Police, under the direct command and control of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP’s commander in chief for building the new exclusive, caste-ridden India of their ideals, have armed unruly Sangh Parivar criminals with their own gear and weapons, allowing them to go on a rampage under police protection. In many places, police were seen encouraging the Hindu mobs to pelt stones and beat up the Muslim protestors. The police themselves were seen pelting stones shoulder-to-shoulder with the assailants. Evidence have also emerged about the police supplying the Hindutva foot soldiers with stones, in some places. The police also video-recorded some of their heroics, like insulting the injured victims by asking them to sing the national anthem and chant ‘vande mataram’, which happens to the Hindu extremists most favorite war-cry after ‘jai shri ram’. Frenzied youth, some of them boys in their early teenage, selectively ransacked and burned Muslim shops and homes and attacked peacefully protesting women, all the while shouting ‘jai shri ram’, as the police simply looked on. Hindutva hooligans were seen roaming the streets brandishing guns and shooting people, even policemen, at will.
All this while, most of the media just chose to look away from the ugly events in Delhi and concentrated instead on the histrionics of Trump and Modi. By doing this, those media houses just underlined the fact that they have been bought off by the administration, and that they should no longer be looked upon as the guardians of India’s democratic values or as champions of the truth. They have stooped so low as to become the yes men of those in power. A few media outlets which did send their reporters on the ground had to deal with the threats and assaults their reporters were subject to, at the hands of the charged-up criminal mobs. At the same time, we must also acknowledge a few in the media who turned their cameras to the truth and reported the arson and attacks undiluted, refusing to sell their souls for material gains.
The so-called opposition parties came with their own theatrics and hypocritical statements, appealing for ‘peace’ and ‘brotherhood’ and writing letters to the Union government for immediate action. In a country where election battles always boil down to non-issues like the Hindu-Muslim and India-Pakistan binaries rather than real issues like life and livelihood, it would be wrong to expect anything more from political parties who fight the elections firmly perched on the ‘Hindu’ plank.
Although they are in power at the center, the BJP-led Sangh Parivar have chosen to unleash their own foot soldiers, terrorists high on a dangerous dose of anti-Muslim hatred combined with extreme bigotry and intolerance, to ‘handle’ the strongest protests against the CAA-NRC dream project which they hope will lay the foundation of their Hindu Rashtra. Already tested successfully in Delhi, the BJP and RSS might soon extend this to the rest of the country, to curb protests. For the Muslims, this is going to be one real test of survival, with no administration, judiciary or press to help them. A battle they can’t afford to lose, the Muslims have now been compelled to prove to themselves and the fascist enemies that they are in it for the long haul.
