by John Dayal (Indian Currents, 17 Jan 2022)
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The Yogi, who is the head of the Gorakhnath cult’s chief math at Gorakhpur, in his five years in office had used the state machinery, and particularly its police, to harass and intimidate the Muslim community.
There have been indiscriminate arrests under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, known as UAPA, of dissidents, activists and Muslims. The most recent has been the tweaking of the anti-conversion laws to arrest Muslim youths in a relationship with Hindu women, or who have already married Hindu women. Inter-religious marriage, known sometimes as Love Jihad, just a term in Kerala where it was invented, has become a crime under the law in Uttar Pradesh. [This is also so in other north Indian states ruled by the BJP, specially Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat, with Karnataka trying hard to join them.]
Mr Modi has done much to deepen Hinduism in the UP landscape. The starting of the work on the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and refurbishing Varanasi, also his Lok Sabha constituency, have further cemented Modi’s image as the Hindu “Hridaya Samrat," ruler of the Hindu heart. And heartland, presumably. Many feel it was his pressure that made the Supreme Court rule in favour of the Hindus in the Babri Mosque ownership case.
The affirmation of the Hindu supremacy continues. On the eve of the Assembly elections, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal have been putting up posters around the ghats of Varanasi that read, “Non-Hindus are prohibited from visiting the Ganga’s bank in Varanasi.” Leaders of these groups shared on social media photos of themselves putting up these posters.
On paper, it would seem that no serious national political group can ignore the Muslims. With a 15% national and 19.5% in Uttar Pradesh presence, and concentrations in perhaps as many as 125 Lok Sabha constituencies, they can be a major force. Just in UP, they are 50.6% in Rampur district, 47.1% in Moradabad, 43% in Bijnor, 42% in Saharanpur, 41.3% in Muzaffarnagar, 40.8% in Amroha, 37.5 in Balrampur, 34.5% in Bareilly, 34.4% in Meerut, and 33.4% in Bahraich.
At the national level, even the 2006 Sachar Committee report had seen the political under-representation of Muslims and suggested ways to improve it, including a more rational delimitation of Scheduled Caste seats for Parliament and Assemblies. Gerrymandering, as the practice is known, has used delimitation to ensure that very few constituencies remain where a Muslim candidate can win on his/her own steam.
The big picture is that Muslims are thoroughly under-represented in Parliament, Assemblies and local bodies, community leaders have said.
Syed Mahmood Zafar, officer on special duty on behalf of the Central Government in the Sachar committee, has said that many constituencies reserved for SCs had a substantial Muslim population. As these seats fell in the reserved category, Muslims are not allowed to contest. With the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Muslim representation in India’s most populous state plummeted from 17.1% in 2012 to 5.9%.
In the 12 Assembly elections, Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of 67 Muslim MLAs since independence. Later their number increased to 69. Of these, about 45 MLAs were from Samajwadi Party. Then 19.5 percent Muslim population of the state got 17.1 percent representation in the Assembly.
Outside of the elections, a different victory is being declared. “No matter who comes to power, we will not allow Muslims to rise up. We are in the process of awakening our youth. We will get mullahs out of graves and finish them from their roots. Wait for April 2, you will see we will create a situation where Muslims have to either convert to Hinduism or they will be sent to Pakistan,” Hindutva leader Pinky Chaudhary declared at the August 8, 2021 rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
Supreme Court lawyer and former spokesperson of BJP, Ashwini Upadhyay, former Bajrang Dal member and founder of Hindu Force, Deepak Singh Hindu, and national president of a Hindu group called Sudarshan Vahini in Delhi, Vinod Sharma, were arrested two days later. They were subsequently granted bail.
And two months later, Upadhyay, Hindu and Sharma attended the Haridwar ‘dharam sansad’ or religious parliament, held from 17-19 December 2021, which called for a genocide against Muslims, attacks on Christians, arming Hindus and insurrection against the government if it did not allow ethnic cleansing.
Inevitable, if the 20% have been politically cleansed already.
SEE FULL TEXT AT: https://www.indiancurrents.org/story-a-political-genocide-john-dayal-145.php
