The rise of Hindutva fascism belies India’s claim to be a secular democracy – Middle East Monitor

India’s popularity because the world’s largest democracy and a rustic that upholds secular values has been eroded ever for the reason that right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) swept into energy in 2014. A number of strikes by the BJP authorities below Prime Minister Narendra Modi appear designed to vary the secular and democratic cloth of India into that of a purely right-wing Hindu nation.

After the BJP acquired a good greater mandate in 2019, its Hindutva agenda turned extra seen. Furthermore, quite a lot of teams affiliated to the ruling social gathering have began to threaten India’s Muslims, the nation’s largest minority group, and their establishments. The newest manifestation of that is the ban on widespread Malayalam-language MediaOne tv channel, citing “nationwide safety”.

MediaOne is predicated within the southern Indian state of Kerala and has thousands and thousands of viewers each inside and past India, particularly within the Center East. It was launched in February 2013 and is understood for its daring information reporting and criticism of the federal government’s communal and neo-fascist agendas, which might be why the federal government has revoked its broadcast licence. The federal government order was upheld by the state’s excessive court docket, however has drawn widespread criticism from all walks of life. Many opposition members in parliament have slammed the federal government for curbing free speech as enshrined within the Indian Structure.

A petition by the MediaOne administration was dismissed by the court docket, which stated that, based mostly on enter from numerous intelligence companies, the House Ministry discovered that safety clearance shouldn’t be renewed for the channel. Nonetheless, each the ministry and the court docket have declined to disclose the explanation for the ban besides the so-called “safety considerations”. The federal government, although, is duty-bound to clarify why it has banned the channel. That is an instance of the intolerance nursed by the right-wing regime in direction of information that it finds unpalatable.

READ: Hijab row escalates additional in India

Article 19 of India’s Structure gives for freedom of speech, outlined as the proper to precise one’s opinion freely with none worry. It’s the accountability of the federal government to make sure that this isn’t breached.

“The voices of the folks, media, and civil society are to be heard in a democracy,” tweeted opposition MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi. “Silencing dissent, debate and dialogue may be very unhealthy for a democracy.”

This isn’t the primary time that Modi’s authorities has made efforts to cease MediaOne from broadcasting. The channel was on the forefront of media protection of the discriminatory Citizenship Modification Act (CAA), which was handed in December, 2019. Below this act, for the primary time in India, faith turned a foundation for granting citizenship. Moreover, the regulation particularly fast-tracks asylum purposes by non-Muslim irregular immigrants from the neighbouring Muslim-majority international locations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

MediaOne additionally reported extensively on the horrendous anti-Muslim riots within the Indian capital New Delhi in February 2020 when Hindu teams terrorised Muslims who have been protesting in opposition to the CAA. Within the aftermath of the Delhi riots that claimed a minimum of 53 lives, the Data and Broadcasting Ministry banned the station for 48 hours together with one other channel, Asianet. Whereas the latter apologised, MediaOne was adamant that it had not dedicated any crime. The federal government was pressured to carry the suspension inside hours.

The channel’s Muslim background is alleged to be one more reason for the ban by the overtly Hindu authorities. It’s the solely Muslim-owned tv information channel in India, and has in depth protection of native, nationwide and worldwide points.

READ: One other Indian faculty bars Muslim women carrying hijab

Regardless of constitutional safety since Indian independence in 1947, the Muslim group has confronted discrimination over a few years. Extra not too long ago, there was a spike in hate crimes and mob lynching. In December final 12 months, right-wing Hindu teams affiliated to the BJP made an open name, throughout a spiritual conclave in Haridwar, for the genocide of Muslims in north India. These teams have stepped up their incitement of communal hatred in opposition to Muslims at a time when 5 Indian states are going to the polls subsequent month. The BJP has repeatedly used the communal card to learn electorally from the polarisation of native and nationwide communities.

Muslim journalists are being threatened and in some circumstances draconian legal guidelines are inflicted on them. Siddique Kappan, for instance, has been languishing in jail since 2020 after being picked up by police in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh whereas on his method to the positioning of an alleged gang rape and homicide of a younger Dalit girl in a village known as Hathras. He’s dealing with expenses that embrace sedition, conspiracy to incite violence, outraging non secular emotions and varied terrorism expenses.

Rana Ayyub, who has over 1.5 million followers on Twitter and 320K followers on Instagram, has been a staunch critic of the BJP-led authorities and right-wing organisations. Her ebook, Gujarat Information: Anatomy of a canopy up, is Ayyub’s account of an eight-month investigation into the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom within the western Indian state, with the tacit help of then chief minister Narendra Modi, earlier than he turned India’s prime minister.

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Modi and his BJP are pursuing a Hindu majoritarian, anti-Muslim agenda that threatens the nation’s standing as an formally secular republic and violates worldwide human rights norms. It’s clear that this authorities is working in direction of a purely Hindu totalitarian state. In August 2019, the ruling social gathering amended the Structure to strip Muslim-majority Kashmir of its autonomy. Then, in November, the Supreme Court docket issued a ruling enabling the development of a Hindu temple on the positioning of a Sixteenth-century mosque demolished greater than twenty years in the past by Hindu communalist forces within the northern metropolis of Ayodhya. The irony is that the court docket admitted the existence of a mosque however determined to provide the Waqf (non secular endowment) land to Hindus citing “majority sentiments”.

The anti-Muslim insurance policies of the right-wing Hindutva rulers now goal colleges and faculties, and the hijab (head overlaying) row is escalating. The banning of the hijab within the BJP-ruled southern Indian Karnataka state has prompted sturdy protests, with college students barred from attending lessons in the event that they insist on carrying one. That is taking place in a rustic the place Hindus sport the tilaka on their foreheads, Christian nuns put on their veils and Sikhs put on their turbans.

Demonstration in New Delhi after academic institutes in India denied entry to college students for carrying hijabs on 8 February 2022 [Amarjeet Kumar Singh/Anadolu Agency]

A video of Bibi Muskan has gone viral after she was heckled exterior her faculty for carrying the hijab and niqab (face overlaying). The younger Muslim girl is seen strolling in direction of the school earlier than shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Nice) in response to aggressive chants by Hindu extremists.

“I used to be going to varsity to submit an project,” she advised India In the present day TV. “There have been some individuals who weren’t permitting me to enter the school as a result of I used to be carrying a burqa. They have been telling me to take away it after which go inside.”

After days of disagreement on the hijab challenge, one college allowed women carrying a veil to enter the constructing, however on the situation that they need to sit in a separate room. This symbolises what the Modi authorities has been working for: segregation based mostly on non secular perception and follow, sarcastically in a rustic which professes to be each democratic and secular. Is there any marvel that India’s 200 million Muslims really feel alienated and marginalised in their very own nation?

The views expressed on this article belong to the writer and don’t essentially mirror the editorial coverage of Center East Monitor.