PNN – The defeat of the majority of India’s ruling party in the recent elections of the House of Commons (Lok Sabha) has led to the gaining power of the opposition parties, especially the Muslim representatives. Now, less than a month after the start of the third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the voices of the minorities are heard more than ever.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third government has been in office for more than a month. However, the opposition parties, which have been able to come to power after a long time, now speak with a different language in the House of Commons (Lok Sabha) and the Upper House (Rajya Sabha), and the problems of the Muslim minority in India are now being investigated with the approach of asserting lost rights.
Many times before, the Modi government has been accused of violating the rights of Muslims; From changing citizenship laws to changing marriage laws for Indian Muslim citizens and…
India’s 200 million Muslims make up the country’s largest minority group, and hate speech against Muslims has increased since Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014.
The opposition parties of the ruling Indian government called for protests against the extremist Hindus
Asaduddin Owaisi, representative of Hyderabad in the Indian Parliament, on the morning of Wednesday, July 3, strongly criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Prime Minister of India in his opening statement: The relentless persecution of Muslims, including the recent spate of violent incidents by Hindu extremists, is alarming.
He claimed that Modi got this position only because of his hatred of Muslims and support of Hindutva extremists.
Earlier, the Politburo of the Communist Party of India released a list of incidents of violence against Muslims, including acts of violence by Hindu extremists and targeted vandalism, which took place over a three-week period. In a statement, he condemned the series of attacks against members of the Muslim community in different regions of the country in the period after the election results were announced.
The list reads: In Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, three Muslim men who were transporting cattle were identified as cattle smugglers and killed by a group known as cow vigilantes. In Aligarh, a Muslim man was beaten to death for allegedly stealing. In Mandla, Madhya Pradesh state, eleven Muslim homes were vandalized within 24 hours after alleged reports of beef being found in their refrigerators. In Lucknow’s Akbarnagar, a Muslim-populated area, the houses of more than a thousand families were bulldozed for the construction of the river bank. Indian people insulted a Muslim woman in an open protest against her being given an apartment in a housing complex for the low-income classes in the chief minister’s housing support scheme in Gujarat.
This list continues in Nahan, Himachal Pradesh, a Muslim’s shop was looted and vandalized after he allegedly sacrificed a cow on Eid-ul-Adha. A case has also been filed against him on the charge of cow slaughter. All 16 other Muslim shop owners in the city have been forced to flee following this incident. In Delhi’s Sangam Vihar, there were reports of residents fleeing the area following inflammatory speeches by members of Hindutva groups (extremist Hindu groups) following the discovery of a cow carcass near a place of worship.
According to the office of the Communist Party of India, such intensification of communal attacks after the defeats suffered by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections shows the fact that the ruling party and Hindutva extremist forces will re-intensify their efforts to polarize Indian society with a vengeance.
Saket Gokhale, a member of India’s upper house (Rajya Sabha), wrote on X: Despite India’s Supreme Court ruling that bulldozing is illegal, several Bharatiya Janata state governments continue to demolish and target the homes of Muslim families after accusing them of the crime before trial.
He added: “The Bharatiya Janata Party no longer has the previous ruthless majority.” Even after Modi’s electoral humiliation, the Bharatiya Janata’s attacks on Muslims and other minorities have increased. I have written a letter to the state officials regarding the demolition of Muslim houses in Noorabad and have ordered that the ground for demolition be provided along with the notices that have been issued. If there is one thing that needs to happen immediately, it is to stop the evil bulldozing practices that are often directed at Muslims and other minorities.
Gokhale added: The Bharatiya Janata should be told that India’s bureaucracy will no longer allow hateful policies and that the targeting of religious minorities will be rightly questioned and fought.
Modi’s third term as Prime Minister, is change coming?
Harsh Mander, a peace activist, says: Hate crimes against Muslims, which Modi’s government allowed and motivated during its first two terms, will not decrease only because of the recent electoral defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
What has happened in less than a month is proof of this claim, but due to the gaining power of the opposition parties of the ruling government, the reaction of the Modi government should be measured in a longer period of time.