How is today’s India different from Gandhi’s India?

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How is today’s India different from Gandhi’s India?
Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, issued a message on March 5, 2020, condemning the massacre of innocent Muslims in India. Describing the recent killings as “heartrending” to Muslims, His Eminence demanded that they be stopped and that the Indian government stand up to the extremist Hindus and the parties supporting them. The following is the viewpoint of Abulfazl Zare’i, the former political consultant to the Iranian Embassy in India, which he has shared with KHAMENEI.IR. In this essay, he endeavours to get to the root of the violence against Muslims in India. Inspired by the Leader’s message, he examines the crimes committed by the extremists in India under the support of the Indian government.

What is happening in India these days?

Since the BJP party took power and Modi became Prime Minister in India, various measures have been adopted against Muslims in different areas. First of all, they targeted Kashmir eliminating Article 370 from the Constitution and violating the sovereignty of that region. After that, they exerted pressure on the Supreme Court and ruled against the Muslims in the Babri Mosque and Rama Temple Case. Subsequently, they ratified a law in order to identify the individuals who had migrated to India after 1988. People were required to present documents and identification. Considering the situation that existed in India regarding identification procedures and documentation, it was very difficult to implement the law. However, when they saw that all non-Hindus were experiencing grave problems as a result of this law, they made amendments to it that facilitated the procedure for everyone except Muslims.

 These inflammatory measures adopted by the Indian government initially sparked peaceful protests by the Muslims. Unfortunately, after Donald Trump and his wife travelled to that country, and after the Modi administration received America’s backing, the measures that had been adopted against the Muslims were intensified with the help of security forces. Horrifying scenes were created as a result of police violence. These scenes evoked the memory of the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar. Unfortunately, this situation is continuing.

How is today’s India different from Gandhi’s India?

Soon after the secession of Pakistan from India, many tribal and denominational conflicts arose; as a result of which, many Muslims and non-Muslims lost their lives. However, after the end of these events, no major conflicts arose. The main reason for this was that the Indian government had less of an ideological and national bias in the past. This was an important factor in helping India to be renown as a country of religious freedom and peaceful life. Not only the Muslims, but also other minorities too, were not exposed to much harassment.

In those days, the majority of the Indian congress was under the influence of the charisma of the Gandhi family, and India was governed based on the thinking and viewpoints of great personalities in India such as Gandhi and Nehru. Therefore, there were few precedents like the recent incidents. However, the BJP party held office for two terms, and in both terms it embarked on strengthening the extremist Hindu organizations. It is worth knowing that the BJP is one of the parties of political Hinduism whose members are accused of assassinating personalities such as Mahatma Gandhi.

Before he became Prime Minister, and during his term as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi strengthened his relations with the Zionist regime on a regular basis and adopted extremist policies in that province. During his tenure as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, certain incidents took place which led to the murder of a large number of Muslims winning him the appellation of “the killer of Muslims.”

During those two terms, the BJP managed to take office for two consecutive terms thanks to its reliance on Hinduism, Hindu ideology and populist slogans and due to its creating a complete bipolarity in the country. When Modi became Prime Minister, he pursued the same extremist actions and slogans. His actions were so extremist that the RSS hardline organization was encouraged to adopt explicit measures against Muslims, whereas before that, it had tried to work in a covert manner.

After Trump’s trip to India, the Modi administration responded to Trump in such a way that they elevated him to the status of a deity. Then, it subsequently began to massacre Muslims, and this has unfortunately continued until today. Therefore, such measures against Muslims are rooted in a change of policy and behavior on the part of India today. At the present time, the Indian government has nothing to do with the Non-Aligned policies. Today, this government has established strategic relations with the Zionists. As for the events that are happening to Muslims in India, they are not unrelated to the issues arising in other regions such as the events happening to Muslims in Palestine’s occupied lands. And, all of these are in line with one policy.

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