VHP threatens a repeat of 2002 Gujarat Pogrom; claims moral support from PM Modi
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindu militant organization organized an event where its members reiterated calls to kill India’s 200 million Muslims.
More than 300 Hindu extremists – including members of the Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and other extremist organizations – attended the event in Manesar, Haryana, to protest the murder of a Hindu tailor, Kanhaiya Lal, in Rajasthan’s Udaipur by two Muslim assailants.
Using the event to stoke communal sentiments, the members, while claiming moral support from PM Modi, further threatened the repeat of the 2002 Gujarat Pogrom in which RSS-linked Hindu extremists massacred more than 1000 Muslims.
In recent years, these mahapanchayats, especially in north India, have become the epitome of organized intolerance and incitement of hate crimes against Indian minorities. Instead of taking action against these hate mongers, the Modi government has targeted those reporting these crimes.
Human Rights Activist Harsh Mander warns of a Muslim Genocide in India
Prominent human rights activist and founder of the Karwan-e-Mohabbat campaign, Harsh Mander, has warned that India is lurching into a Muslim genocide.
In a column written for ‘Progressive International,’ Mander forewarned that genocide is inherent in the imagination of the Hindutva project being implemented by PM Modi’s BJP in India.
“Many ‘early signs’ are visible everywhere. You only need the eye to see, and the heart to care. There is pervasive and stunningly toxic hate speech,” Mander wrote.
He reminded that the two recent credible international reports signaled a dangerous sign that India stands in the abyss of genocide, the gravest of crimes against humanity.
One who sounded the alarm is Gregory Stanton, founder-director of Genocide Watch. Stanton had predicted the massacre of the 800,000 Tutsi in Rwanda five years before it took place in 1994 and accurately foresaw many other genocidal projects since. He warns that genocide of Muslims in India could take place. He identifies many early signs and processes of genocide in India.
The other report, even more grim and urgent in its predictions, is by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It gathers evidence that India is the second-most likely, of all countries worldwide to witness mass killings soon.
Mander further writes, “the Hindutva project requires a radical, violent rupture between India’s Hindus and those of the hated “other” that it constructs, India’s Muslims and Christians. Our leaders are as determined as ever to push the country down this horrific path of hate, fear, and blood.”
In this sheer hatred sown against Muslims in India, Mander argues that the BJP is mainly responsible for this widespread hatred and stigmatizing of Muslims, along with Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and other Chief Ministers in India who contribute to the “hate speech pandemic.”
Five Cartoonists Arrested for anti-Modi posters
Five men, including a printing press owner and an event organizer, were arrested for cartoons criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The police claimed the artwork made “assertions prejudicial to national integration” by displaying a caricature of Narendra Modi.
According to an Indian Express report, the Uttar Pradesh police in Prayagraj (Allahabad) detained the accused on Tuesday for putting up the poster criticizing PM Modi for the lives lost during the farmers’ movement, unemployment, and rising fuel prices.
This is not the first time when the Hindu right-wing regime in India has shown intolerance to even slight criticism from artists. In April this year, mimicry artist Adil Ali in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, was arrested for mimicking PM Modi Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Similarly, in 2018 Tamil folk singer Kovan was arrested for singing a song that criticized Modi and the BJP.
