“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
-Niccolo Machiavelli.
N. P. Upadhyaya (Aryal)
Kathmandu: Ethnic and sectarian violence has already become a regular phenomenon in neighboring India.
From North-Eastern Manipur the ethnic/communal violence has approached Haryana-close to New Delhi and likely to engulf other provinces.
The mayhem observed in Haryana in the recent days, must have scared the Babus in Delhi who are goading India on the Hindutva lines since 2014 to be more specific.
While writing this story, August 05, 2023, a poster has appeared in the Tweeter by a Tweeterati named Ahehnaz@We the people3009 who says, “Modi government Kills Soldiers and Innocent People for Electoral gain. It Ruins the Country by Inciting Religious Riots. It Loots people for the Growth of AMBANI-ADANI. Do we need this regime?”
On the same date that is 05 August, 2023, the Swedish Professor Ashok Swain writes, “(the) Muslims who managed to survive the rioting Hindu supremacist mob in Haryana, India, their houses are being bulldozed by the Hindu supremacist regime”.
The Indian government thus in some way or the other, knowingly or even unknowingly, inviting the unexpected politico-communal-sectoral blizzard which possesses albeit a formidable threat to India’s unity.
Or in other words, a tornado apparently is in the making which shall pose a threat to the efforts keeping India united.
Just a guess work only.
Other Indian States too appear agitated copying on Manipur and Haryana lines which may catapult in Himalayan trouble to the Indian regime ultimately controlled by Hindutva gang in India whose champion, reportedly, is the Prime Minister Modi himself.
PS: While in a recent visit to France, PM Modi was greeted with several protests. Here is the one.
The nursed monster of violence may one fine morning pounce the Babus themselves.
As the international borders have been kept open deliberately for India’s immense socio-political and security advantages, fear is that India’s callous developments may enter neighboring Nepal as the branches of the erratic Indian groupings have already taken a shape in some districts adjoining India’s border towns/provinces.
At times, Nepal’s Hindu community too becomes allergic to the population of other beliefs more so to the Muslims and vice versa.
The Hindu population in Nepal were, undoubtedly, friendly to other religions more so to the Muslims and Christians.
To recall, a sizeable portion of Muslim community even resides since a century or more in mountains around the Pokhara area and the two differing faiths are extraordinarily living a very friendly societal life.
Both have mingled with each other, however, the news that emanates from India in these days may hurt the sentiments of the local Nepali Muslims (with Dhaka caps necessarily in their heads that silently says that we are proud Nepali Muslim-nationals).
Or else, Nepal perhaps is the single country in the entire world more so in South Asia wherein, leaving some sporadic events on sectarian lines, is yet safe comparatively if we talk of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The Bengali-Muslims in Bangladesh at time of Hindu festivities such as Ram Navami, Durga Puja and Hanuman mahotsav became hypersensitive and cause irreparable damage to the Hindu temples and in doing so they hurt the sentiments of the men of Hindu faith.
The Muslims in B’desh must recall how they feel or how their internal sentiments are hurt as and when some fanatics/perverted brains in Western Countries burn their most sacred “Holy Quran”, for example very freshly in Sweden?
The same sentiments, the Hindus possess, feel offended as and when their deities are insulted using derogatory words.
This way, what is needed is the utmost care taken care by men practicing differing faiths not to hurl sad and bad comments on one’ deities whom “we” take in high esteem.
If things go unchecked, the violence is sure to grip entire India.
High placed sources say that Prime Minister Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is adding fuel to the fire thus creating a horrible environment for the minority Muslims and the Dalits across the country.
The fresh ruckus in an around Delhi (Gurgaon) is primarily targeted against the minority Muslims who are being beaten/whipped in a broad day light.
Their shops being burnt to ashes and the Muslims told to enter Pakistan.
US Official remarks on Indian violence:
A Voice of America (VOA) news report prepared by Akmal Dawi, dated July 18, 2023, says in part, “Religious discrimination in India, the world’s largest democracy, has reached ‘FRIGHTENING’ level, and some experts warn that the country must change its course or face targeted sanctions from the US government.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom or the USCIRF, talking to the US lawmakers said recently that “targeted economic and travel sanctions against Indian government agencies and officials that are allegedly involved in violation of religious freedom”.
The USCIRF Chair scathing remarks have come close on the heels of Indian Prime Minister’s fresh trip to the US wherein he was greeted like an uncrowned emperor of India.
PM Modi is the darling of the USA at the moment so the USCIRF has no weight in its statement or say criticisms.
The largest block of the Muslims, the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) is simply ineffective and weak in denouncing India for some mysterious reasons.
However, for the Qatar based the Al Jazeera, Mr. Arbab Ali gives a small account of the destruction caused on 03 August, 2023, saying that “ shops in Gurugram’s Sector 70A and Sector 66 were torched on 01 August, 2023, evening, while Bajrang Dal members held a rally in Haryana’s Bahadurgarh city, shouting hateful slogans such as “Desh ke gaddaron ko, Goli maaro saalon ko” (“Shoot the traitors of our country”) – a chant that was widely used by BJP politicians against Muslims during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in 2019 and 2020.
Clearly, the ruling BJP party and its members have stepped up their hatred against the minority Muslims.
The continuation of such horrifying situation that simply talks of and centers around the intense hatred against the Muslims/Dalits has surely jolted the entire Indian nation and the population that believes in the existence of communal harmony in the nation for all time to come now have reasons to feels frustrated and devastated.
However, the ruling party controlled by PM Modi himself apparently is thinking something big for the majority of the Hindus living in India.
PM Modi perhaps wants to declare India as a Hindu nation contrary to the constitution now in force.
The Indian constitution drafted in the early days of Independence has envisioned a secular India with equal treatments being accorded to other religious beliefs or say faiths.
The violence that has become the order of the day in India, is not for free. Minority is paying the price!
Indeed it has some cost to be paid and in which form the cost is to be paid, nobody as of now knows or for that matter has any inkling of the “blizzard in the making that may fracture the Indian State itself.”
Its fallout is likely to have a very powerful “negative” impact upon the diverse population living in harmony over decades and centuries in India and in India’s immediate neighborhood.
The recurring violence in one or other name in India beginning the advent of Narendra Modi in India, 2024, as its Prime Minister, let’s admit today, the entire South Asian region has lost its original serenity and thereby has also disturbed the stability of this vast landmass of South Asia that comprises of some eight independent and sovereign countries obviously Nepal included.
What surprises the Nepali commentators is that how and why for the powerful Western countries pour honor and respect so much to a highly Islamophobic and undemocratic India?
Gujrat Chief Minister Modi who till 2005, was denied the US visa suddenly became the darling of the US when Modi assumed the post of India’s Prime Minister.
Modi was denied US visa for his deep engagement in the 2002 Gujrat riot that killed thousands of Muslims and it was said then that CM Modi wanted the riot to continue as he wanted to see more Muslims slaughtered.
South Asian Regional Dynamics:
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in effect brought Pakistan closer to the US orbit then conversely, the Indian regime preferred to side with the then USSR.
And now at the moment, the previous equation is dramatically different in that India has is too much closer to the US whereas Pakistan-the cold war ally of the US has been left high and dry.
In a sense, Pakistan apparently finds itself slightly closer to the Russian Federation as India has distanced itself with the USSR, now the Russian Federation, for military benefits.
Having said so, India yet is close to the Russians causing the US to suspect India’s political credentials at times.
By this time, the US expectedly has understood India’s double play but is silent simply because India for the US in the present “geopolitical scenario has a greater significance given the international power shift to Asia (more so to South Asia).
The US needs India and vice versa only because to contain the rise of China.
Professional colleague Yub Nath Lamsal says that “Washington and New Delhi deem necessary to come closer and cooperate in containing the rising China”.
An annoyed India clearly preferred a distance with Washington when New Delhi’s intelligence sources revealed that Dr. Henry Kissinger was meeting President Yahya Khan of Pakistan in October 1970 and that President Khan eased Kissinger’s secret flight to Beijing with later normalized estranged Beijing-Washington ties.
In fact not so many people know that Pakistan had provided a channel for earlier Sino-American communication in as back as in 1969.
It could be this assistance which brought Military ruler close to the US but yet Pakistan was split.
Kissinger kept secret about his tacit linkages with New Delhi which remained instrumental for the emergence of a new country in South Asia-Bangladesh.
A Pakistan which clearly felt cheated by the US but yet supported the US at time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as stated earlier.
Great powers use and overuse smaller regional powers like India or Pakistan as and when it suits them as per their strategic needs.
So the current US-India bonhomie too is not going to last for long. Both want to strengthen their military strength in South Asia more so in containing China’s rise. The moment they conclude that their prime job has been accomplished, the next moment they will begin behaving each other as unfamiliar entity.
A day will some come when Indian PM Modi shall once again be denied US visa and various US organizations shall open the dark chapters of India under PM Modi. But by then thousands of minority Indian Muslims/Dalits will have left for their heavenly abode.
So it is rightly said that in international power game, neither there is permanent enmity nor permanent friendship in the conduct of bilateral relations.
Yet, the US has done great injustice to Pakistan, the Cold War ally by ignoring the equally powerful South Asian regional force which is definitely a nuclear and political deterrent to India for all time to come.
Thanks at least the Pakistan Armed Forces has yet maintained its ties with the US administration.
US-China ties:
Is it only for the reason that if need be, India could be used and overused against the increasingly military-technological advancements of the emerging power that China is?
Indeed, India to some extent can act like a political and military deterrent as wished by the USA at time of crisis but will China halt its advancements and await the Western powers plus India to pounce upon China? China’s reach now could be seen in the entire Arab World plus Iran. So the Russia too enjoys cordial ties with the Gulf countries and it has cultivated sound ties with Iran over these recent years.
And Russia and China have an undeclared alliance beginning the Russian-Ukrainian conflict or say invasion.
In all Russia and China are in the same political wavelength for understandable reasons.
China conversely, as far as we could guess, is almost ready to face the collective threat likely to be posed by the entire West plus India.
Experts say the fresh China-Russia undeclared alliance to a greater extent blunts the threat that is yet to come from the entire West plus India combine to China.
And per chance, if Pakistan joins the aforementioned coalition then the political scenario of the world more so of South Asia would certainly be different.
Summing up:
PM Modi’s excessive hatred against the Indian Muslims has attained a new dimension across India.
The Indian actions against the downtrodden Muslims/Christians/Dalits across the country definitely poses a serious threat to the security of the nations that unfortunately adjoin the India’s international borders.
Nepal is likely to become the most affected neighbor as and when any untoward sectarian violence grips India, the panicked Indian population shall inevitably prefer to sneak into Nepal through the open international borders.
The exodus from India in that eventuality will swell Nepal causing the demographic pattern to change dramatically.
Concluding Remarks with a popular Urdu Shayari:
फिजां मे अजीब सी नफरत की बू है चारों तरफ सुना है हिटलर फिर से कब्र से बाहर आ गया है.
( Fizzan Mey Ajeeb Shi Nafrat Ki Boo Hai, Charon Taraf Suna Hai Hitler Fir Sey Kabr Sey Bahar Aaa Gaya Hai”.
Its English translation is: “There is a strange smell of hatred in the air all around. Hear Hitler has come out of the grave again.”
Guess where the saying could be directed? Or keep on guessing.
( Next Week Arundhati Roy’s sharp comments on India’s ongoing violence in Manipur and Haryana violence: Ed. N. P.) That’s all.