Image Courtesy: thehindu.com
In 2019, there were several instances when BJP revealed its communal agenda with impunity, often in a bid to score political brownie points. Here’s a look at a few of those instances.
1) Muslims slapped with notices to pay damages in Uttar Pradesh
In the aftermath of violence during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), several Muslim households and businesses were served notice to pay for damage to public property. The Indian Express reports that the UP government has slapped such notices on 372 such people, and that the total number of people identified for serving such notices stands at 478. It is noteworthy that in similar cases in the past, no notices have been served. For example, when a mob killed inspector Subodh Kumar Singh in Bulandshahr, a police chowkie and several police vehicles were also damaged. But no notice for recovery of damages has been served in that case.
2) PM’s remark on clothes of anti-CAA protesters
It is unbecoming of the leader of a democracy to insinuate that members of a particular community are responsible for violence during protests, in a bid to further perpetuate the myth that Muslims are destructive and act against national interest. But PM Narendra Modi did just that when anti-CAA protests got violent in West Bengal, when he said that those engaging in violence can be identified based on their clothes. Interestingly, shortly afterwards, the Bengal police apprehended a BJP worker donning a skull cap pelting stones at trains.
3) Criminalising triple talaq
This was also a bald attempt to find new reasons to throw Muslim men behind bars under the guise of protecting the interests of Muslim women. As pointed out by many people, sending a divorced woman’s husband to prison doesn’t help her in any manner given how she loses the source of alimony from his income had be been free to earn a living. Had empowerment been the actual intention, the practice could have just been made illegal without adding a punitive aspect to it.
4) Alleged detention and torture of minors in J&K
Several fact-finding teams comprising some of the most respected civil rights activists, lawyers and journalists have reported multiple cases of minors, usually teenage boys, being picked up by security forces, detained illegally and being tortured in custody. The only thing these boys have in common is that they belong to the Muslim community.
5) The CAA-NRC double whammy itself
The regime’s most blatant attempt to tear asunder the secular fabric of the country was to use the CAA to link the idea of citizenship with religion, and then to use this as a backdoor to make minorities struggle more with proving their citizenship during the NRC, thus leading to large scale disenfranchisement and statelessness of people who are clearly not a favourable vote bank.
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