Dilip Ghosh, a senior leader of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP), said on Sunday that the government was committed to implementing the proposed nationwide National Register of India and announced that the government would send back 10 million Bangladeshi Muslims living in the West Bengal state illegally, Indian media reported.
https://twitter.com/ashoswai/status/1219202483064655873?s=20
The announcement serves as another example of India turning into to a Hindu state where Muslims are facing challenges on one than more accounts for merely being “Muslims”.
According to the details, BJP’s West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh passed the remarks while addressing a rally in the Indian city of Barasat. Ghosh said that those opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are “anti-Bengali and against the idea of India”.
Read more: Kisi Kay Bap Ka Hindustan Nahin Hay: Indian Muslims assert!
He alleged that 10 million illegal Muslims have been “thriving” in West Bengal and taking advantage of the government’s Rs2 per kg subsidy on rice. “We will send them back,” he announced. “These illegal Bangladeshi Muslims are involved in arsons across the state,” Ghosh alleged. The BJP leader said that he did not fear being labelled a communal for supporting the cause of Hindu refugees, who had to run for their life after due to religious persecution.
He claimed that those criticizing and protesting against the controversial citizenship bill are anti-India. “Those who are opposing the CAA are either anti-India or anti-Bengali. They are against the idea of India that is why they are opposing Hindu refugees getting citizenship,” claimed Ghosh.
"50 lakh Muslim infiltrators will be chased out of the country. Infiltrators will be identified, then removed from voters' list. This will reduce Didi's vote bank in upcoming polls"
BJP #WestBengal chief Dilip Ghosh said this at a rally in North 24 Parganas pic.twitter.com/RnfhwdpUBg
— Mirror Now (@MirrorNow) January 20, 2020
The BJP leader said his “heart bleed for infiltrators” while taking a jibe at prominent personalities, for opposing the CAA and the proposed nationwide NRC. “What about Hindu refugees? They don’t have any answers. This is a double standard,” Ghosh asked.
This is not for the first time that the BJP leaders have targeted Muslims. On February 7, 2018 Vinay Katiyar, Member of Parliament representing BJP passed a contentious statement, “Muslims should not be living in this country, they should go to Pakistan or Bangladesh.” He further stated that a bill should be introduced in Parliament for those “who do not respect Vande Matram and insult national flag or hoist Pakistani flag”. This statement came in response to Asaduddin Owaisi, a politician belonging to All India Majlis-e-Itehad-ul Muslimeen, who demanded the framing of a law to punish anyone who calls an Indian Muslim, a ‘Pakistani’.
What is CAA?
According to CAA, six minorities including Jain, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, Parsis, and Buddhists from three neighboring countries Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh are eligible to get citizenship of India if they have lived for six years in the country. These lists exclude Muslim immigrants who have entered the country the same way as other non-Muslims immigrants. This bill amends the citizenship acts of 1995. It is the first time that India has used religion as a legal basis for determining nationality.
Read more: How Orientalism Pitted Hindus against Muslims in India?
Previously India was receiving many illegal migrants from the neighboring countries, and the influx of the migrants coming into the country created many problems especially in the Muslim majority providence of Assam, writes Saleha Anwar, a Lahore-based political commentator.
She further argues that these migrants include people of different religions Hindus, Christians, and Muslims. India does not have any law to give refugee status to illegal migrants instead it has the law to deport them. This is likely to create severe humanitarian crisis if these migrants have to face deportation on the basis of faith. The government of India identifies the migrants (on religious grounds) and give them refugee status one by one. That puts the pressure on already falling country’s economy.
Identity politics by BJP will unfortunately help Modi to divert attention of public from his economic failures.
Also my first newspaper analysis.https://t.co/SQo6LN6qtj— Saleha Anwar (@anwar_saleha) December 27, 2019
Fascist Hindu regime and Indian cultural diversity
Indian is home to more than one billion population where there are different cultures, sub-cultures, religions, and languages. There are 29 states and 7 unions in India. Initially, at the time of independence, it had 17 provinces. To manage ethnic diversity, India opted for federalism and the formation of provinces on a lingual basis. Secularism has always been a defining feature of the Indian polity.
But since Anish Kapoor, a sculptor, wrote an insightful piece back in 2015 when Modi was first elected to power. He maintained that the social cohesion of India would soon be challenged since there was going to be a Hindu Nation with an imaginative glorious past.
Read more: Human Rights Watch highlights genocide of Muslims in India in HRW Report 2020
Hence, the BJP is, if anything, a revivalist Hindu nationalist party following a fascist political ideology to implement a religiously dominated idea of Hindu culture. “The country’s openness to social and religious minorities (more than 500 million people) and regional differences is at serious risk. Of late, Modi’s regime has effectively tolerated – if not encouraged – a saffron-clad army of Hindu activists who monitor and violently discipline those suspected of eating beef, disobeying caste rules or betraying the “Hindu nation”, wrote Kapoor.
The Silence is the Loudest Sound: Echoes of fascism in the #Kashmir Valley
Arundhati Roy writes: https://t.co/Uqwo4Cgova pic.twitter.com/rvJMcXutdL
— The Caravan (@thecaravanindia) August 26, 2019
It is yet to be seen how the world and international civil society react to the rise of religious extremism and gross violation of human rights taking place in India. Sir Anish Kapoor fairly urged the liberals living outside India that “In Britain, we have a responsibility to speak out against it”. Pakistani PM has informed the International community of the dangerous situation that is brewing up in the region. He said that if the international community does not step in to solve this grave issue, the world would have to experience negative repercussions.