Over 3,000 Muslim residents of Gurugram and other areas near Delhi have fled their homes after mob violence instigated by Hindutva extremists from the ruling BJP’s fellow extremist groups, most notably the Bajrang Dal. Ethnic and communal violence has gotten to the point that the opposition parties in parliament called a no-confidence vote — despite the BJP’s absolute majority — just to force Prime Minister Narendra Modi to actually defend his record. While Modi easily won the vote, he did not try to defend the indefensible and instead began attacking the opposition, accusing them of “throwing garbage, ... lies and running away”.
This effort started because of even worse violence in the northeastern state of Manipur, where the BJP government returned to power after 15 years in 2017 and immediately gave the RSS free reign to radicalise the dominant Hindu tribe, which is now attacking minority Christians. It is also worth noting that Hindutva violence spikes before elections in BJP-run states. Modi has still not commented on Gurugram, and his only comments on Manipur came in the wake global outrage over viral videos of a mob parading two Christian women naked after allegedly gang-raping one of them. Yet, even while claiming the incident caused him “pain” and “shamed the whole nation”, he did not mention, let alone condemn, the supremacist ideology motivating the attackers.
In less than a month, India is also scheduled to host a G-20 summit in New Delhi, just 30km away from Gurugram. Even if the violence is resolved by then, it would be extremely disappointing — though not at all unexpected — if the world leaders in attendance do not call out Modi for the rise of communal violence during his time in office. Unfortunately, Western democracies have long made it clear that India’s value as a counterbalance to China is more important than the well-being of millions of Muslims, Christians and other minorities under the country’s Hindu nationalist regime.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 12th, 2023.
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