BJP: The Largest Party in India, Oppressing the Muslim Minority Since Coming to Power

The ongoing clash between the millions of persecuted Muslims in India, members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and supporters of the extremist Hindu RSS nationalist movement has no end.

The sectarian division is imposing itself regardless of culture and education due to the fierce Hindutva led by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and large numbers of Hindus.

Since Modi's party came to power in 2014, the situation of the Muslim minority (around 200 million Muslims) has become catastrophic.

Most of India's Muslims suffer from racist policies and sectarian incidents, during which hundreds of victims were killed across the country.

Although Muslims represent the second sect in India after Hindus in number of people, they are constantly exposed to violence, especially during the era of the Bharatiya Janata government, which carries extremist ethnic ideas represented by Hindutva.

 

Well Educated

The latest of these attacks occurred on October 17, 2022, when the Indian police arrested 4 Hindus on charges of "urinating" inside a mosque.

What seems weird about the incident is that the four defendants were well-educated.

One of whom holds a master's degree in business administration, the second is an employee of a multinational company, the third is an official in the management of a prominent hotel, and the last is a civil engineer and a contractor who owns a real estate company.

The attack coincided with a Hindu celebration called "Durga Puja," which is of great importance in India.

During the noon prayer, Muslims were surprised by the 4 Hindus entering the mosque by force.

Some of those present in the mosque were arrested, while others escaped in a car that was waiting for them outside.

Shockingly, during the police investigation, BJP leaders arrived at the station pledging to defend the accused.

Muslims expressed their fears and wondered how did they reach the police station so quickly to defend the accused if the incident was not planned to cause sectarian tension in the city during the days of the Hindu festival.

At the same time, MP and BJP leader Ravindra Rai held a press conference, talking about the police arrest of the four people, and demanded their immediate release.

People were shocked by the educational and professional background of the accused, but what was more shocking was the behavior of the ruling party and its leaders towards this crude sectarian incident by desecrating a mosque that represents millions of Muslims in India.

 

Akhlaq and Aqueel

On October 10, 2022, the Nation 12 newspaper, covering the Muslim minority's news in India, published its report on the killing of the citizen, Muhammad Akhlaq, on September 28, 2015, at the hands of a group of extremist Hindus.

The story of Akhlaq is not related to a single person who fell victim to sectarian violence from the Hindus, but rather the story of an entire village that was peaceful and harmonious and turned into a turbulent town dominated by fear and racism.

The incident began when Akhlaq was brutally assaulted by his Hindu neighbors, who accused him of eating beef (forbidden in their religion); Akhlaq, 52, died after he was seriously injured.

His 22-year-old son hardly escaped, as he, as well, was horribly injured in the brutal assault.

However, the police stated in its report that Akhlaq was not storing beef and that the dishes were too big to be placed in a refrigerator, which was subsequently approved by the Indian court.

For the past 7 years, his younger brother, Jan Mohamed, has been continuing his legal battle to achieve justice for his late brother and his family.

Despite the fears and threats, Jan continues to try to convict the accused protected by the BJP.

The horrific incident caused bad relations between Muslims and Hindus in the village where Akhlaq lived.

The social relations between the Muslims and Hindus in the village worsened, and 20 Muslim families out of 30 left out of fear.

This was a clear result of the polarization and hatred against minorities, especially Muslims, a wave that escalated in the country following discriminatory policies adopted by Prime Minister Modi and his ruling party.

On October 1, 2022, Indian journalist Shaikh Azizur Rahman posted on his Twitter account that "in the dispute over a seesaw game, a young Muslim was brutally assaulted by supporters and leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state of Uttar Pradesh."

He stated that "a taxi driver, Aqueel Ahmed (28 years), was brutally assaulted and died by the leaders of the ruling party, most of whom are extremist Hindus.

"The quarrel began when Aqueel was with his friends to see a local exhibition. At that time, skirmishes took place with the leader of the ruling party, Rajat Rastogi, because of the swing game, after which Rastogi called his friends and told them that clashes broke out between Hindus and Muslims at the exhibition."

He added, "Following his call, the son of the Chairman of the Senior Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh rushed to the exhibition hall and attacked Aqueel, who passed away due to serious injuries."

Despite this tragic incident, the police did not accuse the aggressors of murder but registered the charge under secondary sections.

Farzana Begum, the wife of the victim, Aqueel Ahmed, wrote a letter to the police chief saying that "local security men were trying to remove the name of the BJP deputy chief from the case."

Farzana expressed her fears that her family "could be subjected to attack and murder."

 

Hindu Campaign

On October 20, 2022, a British newspaper reported that Hindu national groups launched a home visits campaign to ban certified halal products in Karnataka, coinciding with the Diwali holidays.

According to The Kashmiriyat's report, Hindu groups Janajagruti Samiti, Sri Ram Sena, Raastra Rakshana Pade, and Vishwa Sanatan Parishad are planning to distribute a booklet called "Halal Jihad," to encourage Hindus to join their campaign against halal products for Muslims.

According to the newspaper, the police are closely monitoring the situation, but they do not interfere to stop the racist campaign that may increasingly ignite the situation across the country, especially as these groups carry extremely extremist and hateful ideas, and all of them operate under the eyes of the largest ruling party Bharatiya Janata.

Bharatiya Janata, which means Indian People's Party, was founded in 1980 with fanatical Hindu nationalist ideas and beliefs, and since its rise, the party has opposed Muslim minorities in the country and has practiced racist policies against them.

In 1986, the Bharatiya Janata Party began achieving a remarkable rise in the elections and succeeded in spreading its wings across the outskirts of India. In 2014 it swept the legislative elections in which nearly 845 million voters participated, winning 274 constituencies out of a total of 543.

On April 20, 2015, the party's leaders announced that it had "become the largest political party in the world, with its membership exceeding 100 million after a 6-month registration campaign."

On May 24, 2019, after legislative elections that witnessed unprecedented fierce competition, which spanned seven complete stages, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party achieved a historic victory, which strengthened the control of the nationalist movement over the political system in India.

One of the most prominent tools that the BJP relied on in mobilizing the votes of Hindu voters was its focus on the marginalization and exclusion of Hindus from decision-making over the decades of the National Congress Party's control, accusing it of supporting Muslims at the expense of Hindu beliefs.