The Shiv Sena's is on the offensive attacking Muslims, and others who have anything to do with Pakistan. Earlier this month, Shivseniks (god Shiva's soldiers) lynched a Muslim man wrongly accused of keeping cow beef in his fridge. Later a young truck worker from Kashmir was murdered and his companions injured on suspicion of transporting cows for slaughter. In the meanwhile, BJP members of held Kashmir legislature scuffled with Muslim legislators because one of them, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, had served beef at a private party. Not content with assaulting Rashid inside the state assembly, the other day they threw black ink on his face as he addressed a news conference.
All this time the Modi government did nothing to hold murderous Shivsenkiks to account. In fact, union minister Mahesh Sharma described the brutal lynching as an "accident" while BJP chief minister of Haryana, Manohar Khattar, indirectly endorsed the killing by advising Muslims to give up beef eating, and another party leader, Sakhshi Maharaj, demanded death penalty for cow slaughter. RSS, to which Prime Minister Narendra Modi still pays allegiance, justified the lynching saying it could not have been "without reason" as even the "Vedas mandate killing of those who slaughter cows." Religious beliefs and reason usually do not go together. That is the nature of religion. But this case seems to be more about Hindutva politics than religion. It is worthwhile to note that India is one of the world's largest exporters of beef from slaughter of both cows and buffalos.
The RSS agenda includes avenging real or perceived oppression of Hindus by Muslim invaders. That is where Modi's anti-Pakistan rhetoric and policies come from. The recent string of attacks or threats of attacks against Pakistanis are no coincident. A few days ago, Hindutva zealots smeared with black paint the face of Sudheer Kulkarni, a moderate Hindu nationalist, for hosting the book launch of former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri. Before that, they had prevented a famous Pakistani musician from performing in Mumbai, and are now warning Pakistani film actors of serious consequence if they did not go back home.
In a more telling incident concerning this country, last Monday Shiv Sena activists raided the headquarters of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shouting anti-Pakistan slogans ahead of the BCCI chief's scheduled meeting with chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Shehayar Khan and head of the PCB executive committee, Najam Sethi, both of whom had arrived in Mumbai to discuss resumption of cricket between the two countries. Giving in to the attackers the BCCI not only cancelled that meeting but also refused to hold any further discussion on the subject. The two Pakistani officials had to return home disappointed. This could not have happened without the BCCI's collusion and the Delhi government's approval. The ICC also felt it necessary to withdraw its elite panel umpire from Pakistan, Aleem Dar, from the ongoing India - South Africa matches because of Shiv Sena's ultimatum to cause him bodily harm. Clearly, the two incidents were part of a well-calculated plan to isolate Pakistan in the cricketing world. The International Cricket Council (ICC) should have considered cancelling the Twenty20 World Cup India is to host next March-April or at least given a warning to the BCCI for its failure to provide security to its own umpire and mistreating the visiting cricket officials from Pakistan. That though was not going to happen as the BCCI, by dint of its money power, dominates the ICC. The latter, in fact, has become a virtual handmaiden of the BCCI.
Notably, the Shiv Sena, as a member of the wider Hindu extremists 'sang parivar' is part of the Modi government, and RSS the custodian of his party BJP's Hinduvta ideology. The RSS presided over candidate selection process at the time of general elections. Also not to be forgotten is the fact that Modi's election campaign was based entirely on the militant Hindutva card to win large block votes of Hindus. Hindutva symbols and slogans dominated his campaign from start to finish. As a result, the BJP won the largest parliamentary majority in 30 years, delivering a severe blow to the country's secular credentials.
Actually, no one should have any doubts about Modi's intentions who presided over 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom as chief minister of Gujarat state. He has built himself a reputation as a Muslim hater and hard-liner towards Pakistan. Accordingly, in line with the RSS agenda, he has been colluding with Shivsaniks in their hate-filled acts of violence against minority communities (they also have to their credit horrific violence against Christians). For the same reason he has been rebuffing Islamabad's friendly overtures, escalating violence along the LoC and the Working Boundary, and doing all he can to put Pakistan under pressure. Islamabad would be wise to ignore Modi's provocations.
Liberal elements in India cannot afford to ignore his policies, however. Some 42 writers, poets and playwrights have returned a prestigious literary prize awarded by the National Academy of Letters to protest the rise of intolerance in the country. They started worrying about extremist violence after an academic from Karnataka was murdered in his home for criticising idol worship. These people have a long battle on their hands to stop the BJP-RSS combine from steering the country away from its founding ideal of secularism. For, once religion is mixed with politics under state patronage it becomes very difficult to disentangle the two. The fight is all the more difficult considering that the voters bought into the Modi's brand of nationalism, bringing him to power with a large majority. He is here to stay for at least the next three years, chipping away at Indian secularism- the glue that could bind India's diverse religious communities in a harmonious relationship. As per 2011 census, Muslims comprise 14.2 percent of the population, Christian 2.3 percent, Sikhs 1.7 percent, Jains 0.4, others 0.9 percent. More than 20 percent of the population is non-Hindu. These people as well as liberal sections of society are not going to sit around taking insults and violence from the Hinduvta zealots. It would be interesting to see how this battle between the secularists and Hindu religious extremists ends up.
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