India has seen an “escalating trend” of anti-Muslim speech since Modi rose to power in 2014. The report found that more than half of the documented incidents this year were orchestrated by the ruling BJP and affiliates including the Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Sakal Hindu Samaj. Those groups have ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP.
Source: ‘Escalating trend’: Most hate speech in India linked to Modi’s party
Modi has a history of bloodshed that nobody should be proud of
As a start, let’s look at two recent incidents, one in India and the other in the United States.
Too many upper-caste Indians and white Americans think of themselves as the only ones worthy of enjoying the spoils of the Earth. They want it all and are ready to get it by exploiting, not to say violating, non-upper-caste bodies in India and non-white ones in the U.S., along with cows and fetuses, using religion as a tool in both cases. The bodies of Dalits, Muslims, Christians, the people of occupied Kashmir, liberals, journalists, historians, climate and human rights activists, educators, Blacks, Indigenous people, women, LGBTQ people—all of them are fodder for the violent right-wing in both countries.
Source: The Grim Lesson India Offers the US | The Smirking Chimp
Gandhi, 52, lost his seat on Friday, a day after a court in the western state of Gujarat convicted him and sentenced him to two years in jail for a defamatory comment he made during an election campaign rally in 2019.
The rise of Religious Nationalism is detrimental to the principles of Democracy
India’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, has more members than most countries have people.
The unit’s latest report says there has been “a serious deterioration in the quality of democracy under leader Narendra Modi, whose Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has presided over increased intolerance and sectarianism towards Muslims and other religious minorities” and that a failure to “crack down on the persecution of religious and other minorities by Hindu nationalists continues to weigh on India’s democracy score”.
To rise from the fringes of Indian politics to become the world’s biggest party has been a stunning achievement. But can Indian democracy flourish with a political behemoth like the BJP?
Source: India’s BJP: The rise of the world’s biggest political party
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