The phrases freeze the blood. They had been uttered by non secular, Hindu extremists, throughout an occasion organized between December 17 and 19 within the holy metropolis of Haridwar, within the state of Uttarakhand, some 200 kilometers north of New Delhi. In entrance of crowds solely dedicated to their trigger, they took an oath to make India, a secular and multi-faith nation, a Hindu nation – even when it meant eliminating tens of thousands and thousands of Indian Muslims (15% of the billion Indians) .
A couple of days later, a name for genocide towards Muslims made the rounds on social networks. « If there are 100 of us prepared to kill two million of them, then we will probably be victorious and make India a Hindu nation », launches a girl, recognized in one of many movies as Pooja Shakun Pandey, of the Hindu Mahasabha, an ultranationalist group. On this clip, she additionally calls to wish for Nathuram Godse, the murderer of Mahatma Gandhi, father of the nation, who advocated concord between religions.
Regardless of the seriousness of the threats, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from the ranks of the Hindu nationalists of the Bharatiya Janata Get together (Indian Folks’s Get together, BJP), remained silent. « These concepts are very previous, however they’re now expressed with full impunity, with none member of the get together in energy condemning them and with the tacit assist of the federal government », underlines Gilles Verniers, professor of political science on the non-public college of Ashoka, within the suburbs of New Delhi.
Feeling of impunity
These hate speeches come as a number of key regional elections are on account of happen in early 2022. That is the case in Uttarakhand, the place this occasion happened, but in addition in Uttar Pradesh, the place Narendra Modi is actively campaigning for the chief of outgoing authorities, the fanatic monk Yogi Adityanath, additionally usually singled out for his remarks towards the Muslim minority which represents some 200 million folks on this state.
« In each election, the BJP thinks it will possibly solely win by polarizing society, and the Prime Minister’s speeches are only a extra refined model of the crass calls to hatred uttered by Haridwar clerics, » observes Dhirendra Ok. Jha, creator of a number of books on Hindu extremist teams. This specialist has as proof the speech of Narendra Modi in Varanasi (Benares), Uttar Pradesh, on December 13, during which he conspired with the Muslim emperor Aurangzeb, who reigned from 1658 to 1707. « Right here, if an Aurangzeb arrives, then a Shivaji rises », he had launched, in reference to this Hindu army chief, founder and chief of the Marathi Empire (1630-1680).
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