Rising India or deep fissures within?

• Lies and deception

India is organising “Rising India—2018” international summit, being marketed as “strategising global challenges for nation building.” The event is scheduled for New Delhi on February 14-15, 2018. Promoting its human resource capital, India is seeking investment for its so called “innovation for greater revolution” aimed at realising, restructuring and reenergising its wealth.

Prima facie, any criticism by a Pakistani scribe may tantamount to “sour grapes” but it is essential to expose the great hoax, since the Indian human resource capital being so blatantly advertised is plagued with deep fissures within. The fault lines are so numerous that they would fill volumes but a few prominent ones are briefly mentioned here lest the world gets taken in by this deliberate deception.

Indian human resource capital being so boastfully presented is deeply divided by these fissures. The Sangh Parivar, which comprises the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), Bajrang Dal (Army of Hanuman), Dharam Jagaran Samiti (Organisation for conversion of non-Hindus to Hinduism), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, the political wing), Hindu Rashtra Sena (propagating for the establishment of Hindu nation), Rashtriya Hindu Andolan (calls for the deletion of “secular” from the Indian constitution), Hindu Vivek Kendra (a resource center for the promotion of the ideology of Hindutva) and the most militant out of them, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), rule the roost in India.

Narendra Modi had sought the help of the Sangh Parivar to have him voted into power during the general elections of 2014. No sooner he was anointed as the prime minister than the Sangh Parivar demanded its pound of flesh: launch of Hindu extremism, repeal of secularism from the Indian constitution, persecution of Indian minorities and forced conversion of non-Hindus into Hinduism. Narendra Modi, a devoted RSS pracharak (apostle) had no problem with it and installed rabid Hindu extremists into sensitive positions like the national security advisor, heads of the Indian spy agencies RAW and Intelligence Bureau and numerous other senior bureaucratic positions.

Previously existing fault lines like the unfinished agenda of the partition of the Indian Subcontinent in 1947, Kashmir, the rise of the Naxalite (Maoists), separatist movements like Khalistan, Gorkhaland, Bodoland and the disturbed Seven Sisters of India

The belief of the Sangh Parivar is that all minorities like Muslims, Christians, Jews, Sikhs and others are “foreign bodies” implanted in the Hindu nation, who need to be converted into Hinduism, subjugate to Hindu supremacy or made to quit India, leaving it for the Hindus. An organised pogrom of ethnic cleansing has been launched to bear fruition of the heinous aim.

Previously existing fault lines like the unfinished agenda of the partition of the Indian Subcontinent in 1947, Kashmir, the rise of the Naxalite (Maoists), separatist movements like Khalistan, Gorkhaland, Bodoland and the disturbed Seven Sisters of India: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura, have all been triggered because of the rise of Hindutva under Modi’s watch. The introduction of draconian laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) have only aggravated the situation and acted as a catalyst to spur the movements for severance from India.

Muslims have borne the brunt of targeted killings. The independence movement in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) has taken a toll of over 100,000 lives since 1989, when the just struggle gained impetus but the planned massacre of the Kashmiri Muslims has reached new levels of brutality under the BJP regime of Modi. Cow slaughter has not only been banned but Muslims are periodically targeted and lynched on the charge of consuming beef or even selling or storing cow meat in their homes.

Dalit, the low caste Hindus, have also been systematically targeted, forcing them to convert to Islam or Christianity to escape persecution by upper caste Hindus. Modi’s government has introduced a new suppressive law by virtue of which, those low caste Dalit have to denounce their new religion and return to Hinduism or face persecution.

Foreign women and minorities are raped by armed Hindu gangs to the extent that even septuagenarian and octogenarian nuns are not spared. Christian pastors and their families have been burnt alive. Muslim clerics thrown out of moving trains, whole bogeys conveying Muslim passengers have been torched.

The rise of Hindu extremism has upset level headed Indians, especially those who had participated in the freedom movement and want to see India follow Gandhian principles of “live and let live” and tread the path of secularism. A majority of them have reacted by returning the awards and medals presented to them by the state in protest and warned the repressive regime of Modi to desist from the path of self-destruction in pursuing Hindu extremism.

A group of over one thousand internationally renowned Academics, litterateurs, writers and even Nobel laureates have signed a petition urging Narendra Modi to stop the persecution of Indian minorities but their pleas have so far fallen on deaf ears.

The rise of radicalism in India has been observed as saffron Talibanisation by some Indian politicians. A group named Abhinav Bharatnamed after the Abhinav Bharat Society, an organisation founded by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the father of Hindutva, in 1904 is promoting Hindu supremacy through violence. The original organisation believed in armed revolution, and was responsible for the assassinations of some officers of the ruling British government before being disbanded in 1952. The current Abhinav Bharat was founded in 2006 by a retired major of Indian army, Ramesh Upadhyay, and in-service Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit. Himani Savarkar, the niece of Nathuram Godse (the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi) and the wife of Vinayak Savarkar’s nephew, was elected president of the group in 2008. The group believes that Hinduism was in danger, and needed to be defended. Abhinav Bharat established preparatory institutions for cadets before they joined the various armed forces training academies to instill in them the radical thoughts of Hindutva, imbibe in them hatred for Muslims and other non-Hindus. Resultantly, whole generations of fundamentalist Hindus have been commissioned in the Indian army, navy and air force with a deep seated abhorrence for non-Hindus. Driven by a mission to annihilate or subjugate non-Hindus, these officers will wreak havoc in India and beyond.

Readers may find it of interest that Abhinav Bharat members Swami Aseemanand, Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan, Sunil Joshi and Rajendra Choudhary were arrested in connection with the Malegaon terrorist bombings, while the organization has also been investigated for its alleged role in 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings, Mecca masjid bombing, and Ajmer Dargah blast. It has been alleged that the 2008 Mumbai attacks were staged to exterminate Hemant Karkare, the head of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad and his entire team to save Lieutenant Colonel Purohit, an active service Indian army officer whose arrest was being protested by the Sangh Parivar and other Hindu extremist organisations.

It has also been highlighted that the extremist Islamic group ISIS, making use of the fault lines and deep fissures in Indian society has established a base in India to further its heinous agenda of creating chaos and mayhem.

In the prevailing milieu, promoting India’s human resource capital is not only a lie but is equivalent to deception.