The BJP’s Islamophobic politics

Narendra Modi-led Hindutva regime is all set to inaugurate the controversial Ram Mandir atop the ruins of 16 century old Babri mosque which will mark the culmination of another promise made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BPJ) to their radical Hindu voters, and will serve as the biggest political testament for the Hindu majoritarianism over Indian Muslims. The Ram Temple inauguration at a time when the Hindu majority India is braced for a nationwide election in May this year had far-reaching effects on New Delhi’s domestic politics, and future political landscapes, diminishing religious freedoms and minorities’ rights, above all, it is more likely to put Hindu Nationalist BJP on the victory stand for a straight third time further paving the way toward a radical Hindu state on the ruins of Secular/ pluralistic India.

This moment also reminds the deplorable scenes witnessed by the civilized world over three decades ago in December 1992, when violent Hindu gangs stormed the Babri Masjid climbed atop the dome and demolished the building to clear the site for a Hindu temple. Nationwide protests erupted in India, and violence cost more than 2000 lives mostly Muslim women and Children. The inquiry commission constituted by the Indian government found dozens of people many of whom were BJP leaders and currently represent the Modi government, responsible for orchestrating, encouraging and materializing the heinous attack against the historic Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.

Historically, Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP benefited most from stirring up Hindu nationalism around the Babri Masjid, and through furling Hindu-Muslim controversy in domestic politics in India throughout the past, particularly in recent years since 2014. When RSS influenced Bhartia Junta Party swept into power, displacing the Secular Indian National Congress, that entirely changed the political, social and societal dynamics in current-day India.

The BJP then began to remake secular India into a Hindu supremacist state, that significantly added by India’s Supreme Court decision allowing Hindus to build their Temple on disputed land. Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stone of the Ram Temple at a groundbreaking ceremony in August 2020 and is now ready to harvest the fruit of the controversy what the BJP and other Hindu supremacists began more than 30 years ago to grasp the Hindu nationalist peers to make India so-called Akhand Bharat.

India is witnessing a sharp rise in Hindu extremism that has squeezed the Indian soil for religious and ethnic minorities from Kashmir to Nagaland and Punjab to Manipur. Although, minority rights in India is a long-held issue that emerged in the Hindu-majority nation just after getting independence from British colonial rule in August 1947. Besides, state suppression in Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir, Juna gadh, and Gurdaspur, the Muslims faced hate crime, communal violence, and prejudice at the hands of the Hindu majority due to their perceived bifurcation of Akund Bharat after Pakistan got independence. The demolition of the historic Babri mosque and the construction of the Ram Mandir over its land is a clear manifestation of Hindus’ bias toward Muslims and growing Hindu majoritarianism in modern India.

In fact, the rift between Muslims and Hindus had always existed in history yet these faultlines became more visible and deeper after the Modi-led pro-RSS BJP regime came to power and started using both religion and nationalism as tools to flourish party politics. Meanwhile, the Modi regime undertook multiple legislative, administrative and political measures that widened the gap between the Hindu majority and the Muslims, who constitute the largest ever minority in any country in the world. It is important that the global community and Western media specifically highlight the minority rights issue in India along with reporting on the BJP’s Islamophobic politics and inhumane use of Hindus’ religious sentiment against ethnic and religious minorities to achieve victory in the elections.