India claims to be so called a champion of democracy and a secular state. The ground realities are totally opposite to their claims. India also claims to be a successful nation which is totally wrong. It’s perfect time to show the real face of India to the world.
Taking about environment, it’s a fact that India is one of the most polluted countries of the world. According to the 2021 World Air Quality Report, India is home to 63 of the 100 most polluted cities, with New Delhi named the capital with the worst air quality in the world. The study also found that PM2.5 concentrations – tiny particles in the air that are 2.5 micrometres or smaller in length – in 48% of the country’s cities are more than 10 times higher than the 2021 WHO air quality guideline level.
Freedom of speech is not ensured in India. Media is not allowed to show the real picture of what is going on in Indian Occupied Kashmir, Punjab, Asaam etc. It’s a slap on a country which claims to be a secular country.
India is based on Lies and false propaganda. It’s not a far incident where 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers were killed in a suicide attack in Pulwama district. India had accused Pakistan of orchestrating the attack which brought the two nuclear powers to the brink of another war. But the Pakistani government denied its involvement in the attack. Satya Pal Malik, who was the governor of Indian-administered Kashmir at the time of the attack, told India’s The Wire news website in an interview that he “realised that all the onus of the attack will be put on Pakistan” to reap electoral benefits. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had repeatedly cited the Pulwama attack to mobilise voters in the 2019 general elections, in which he returned to power with a larger majority in parliament. In his interview, Malik, the former governor, blamed Pakistan for the attack but added that it happened due to the “incompetence” and “carelessness” of Modi’s government. Malik claimed that Modi told him to “stay quiet” about the security lapses he allegedly raised with the government. He added that India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had also told him to remain silent over the alleged lapses. India should look into the voices coming out from within their countries which clearly shows the lies from their leadership.
According to an article published in times of India, Being a woman is not easy and that too when you live in India. Because in India at every 20 minutes a girl is raped. And if we talked about the current scenario, India is not safe for women not even in this 21st century. This country has been ranked as the world most dangerous place for women.
Remember that heinous crime that occurs in the national capital of India, Delhi at Munirka on 16 December 2012 (Nirbhaya case). That leaves everyone in trauma and left a dark stain on women safety and security. She was a physiotherapy intern who had gone to watch a movie with her male friend and has been assaulted on her way back home. She had been Raped on a bus by six people in which she was travelling with her male friend. These monsters had crossed all the limits of brutality. This case got national as well as international coverage, but nothing had made a big change in the speed of justice of Nirbhaya case as this high profile case had taken 7 years to conclude. The judicial system of India is somewhere responsible for the rising numbers in the rape case in India On the same day of Nirbhaya, there was one more gang-raped happened in Meghalaya where a girl went to the Winter festival at William Nagar with her friends and on her way back she was hit with bricks on her head and raped by 16 people.
According to author, Nirbhaya was not the sole rape case in 2012, as per NCRB report it was one of the 24,923 recorded cases and even the report stated that in the same year more than 68 girls raped every day. He gave some examples of rape cases in India from 2012 to 2020:
16 Dec 2012, Nirbhaya Gang rape by 6 people including a juvenile, 22.Aug.2013
Shakti Mills Gang rape by 5 people including a juvenile, 27.May.2014
Badaun Gang rape by up to 7 people, July 2015
Shivgangai minor girl rape case Accused a police officer, 29.March.2016
Delta Meghwal rape case 17yrs old girl accused her hostel teacher, 04.Jun.2017
Unnao rape case A minor girl raped, Jan.2018
Kathua Rape Case Minor girl raped by 7 people, Dec.2019
6-year old girl raped on her way back home from school, 23.April.2020
6-year old girl raped.
Now come to the situation of law & order and treatment with minorities in India. Recently, a former member of India’s Parliament, was shot dead on live TV along with his brother while in police custody in the northern city of Prayagraj, raising questions about rule of law in the state of Uttar Pradesh. According to Al Jazeera report, The gunmen, who appeared to have posed as journalists, fired multiple shots at Atiq Ahmed and former state legislator Ashraf Ahmed on Saturday as they were being taken in handcuffs to hospital by police for a medical checkup, authorities said. Three suspects quickly surrendered to the police after the shooting with at least one of them chanting, “Jai Shri Ram,” or “Hail Lord Ram,” a slogan that has become a battle cry for Hindu nationalists in their campaign against Muslims. The two victims were from India’s Muslim minority.
Another example clearly showing the value of Muslims and minorities in India was in 1992 where an organized mob of at least 75,000 Hindus descended on one of Ayodhya’s mosques—the Babri Masjid and tore it to the ground using hammers, rods, and shovels, while Indian authorities watched. In the aftermath of this attack, interreligious rioting engulfed several Indian cities, and by the end of the violence, over one thousand people, most of them Muslim, were dead. In some cities, like Mumbai, indiscriminate shooting of peaceful Muslims by police was reported.
Apoorvanand in his article published in Aljazeera says that, Muslims, however, are not the only religious minority being targeted by the increasingly emboldened far right in the country. Christians across India are also facing similar hate and violence. As veteran journalist John Dayal reported, “violent Hindu mobs attacked churches, Christian congregations in prayer and groups celebrating Christmas in at least 16 cities and towns”. Such incidents were seen in states all across the country, from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi in the north to Karnataka in the South. According to United Christian Forum, at least 460 attacks against Christians have been recorded in the 2021 in India. Under BJP’s leadership, India became one of the most dangerous countries for Muslims and Christians in the world. They are being persecuted physically, psychologically and economically. Laws are being passed to criminalize their religious practices, food habits and even businesses. On top of discriminatory laws, they are also routinely being threatened with and subjected to physical violence. The media, as well as the TV and film industries are prejudiced against them. Perhaps most importantly, the elected rulers of the country are constantly dehumanizing and even demonizing them to further their own political agenda. 2021 was a year of fear, violence and harassment for Muslims and Christians of India. And as the Bulli Bai incident demonstrated, the Hindu far right’s attacks on religious minorities continued with force in the next years. The justice system in India is failed to treat everyone equally which can be clearly seen in the case of Babri Mosque.
According to an article of VISWANATH, Raghavi, Violence against Muslims and Dalits in India has drastically increased since the incumbent political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), came to power in 2014. Around 85% of perpetrators are alleged to have been associated either with the BJP or its sister Hindu organizations. In at least some cases, law enforcement agencies have been either indifferent or hostile to the victims.
Then the Human rights violations in Manipur are also in front of the world. The European Parliament has strongly urged India to take necessary measures to promptly halt the ongoing ethnic and religious violence, protect all religious minorities such as Manipur’s Christian community, and pre-empt any further escalation. The joint resolution was adopted recently following recent violent clashes in the state of Manipur, India since May 2023 that left at least 120 people dead, 50 000 displaced, and over 1 700 houses and 250 churches destroyed. The resolution noted that intolerance towards minority communities had contributed to the current violence and there were concerns about the politically motivated, divisive policies that promote Hindu majoritarianism in the area. The Manipur state government has shut down internet connections and severely hindered reporting by the media, while security forces have been implicated in the recent killings, something that has further increased distrust in the authorities. The Members of the European Parliament called on the Indian authorities to allow independent investigations to look into the violence, tackle impunity and o lift the internet ban. They also urged all conflicting sides to cease making inflammatory statements, re-establish trust and play an impartial role to mediate the tensions. The Parliament reiterated its call for human rights to be integrated into all areas of the EU-India partnership, including trade. The MEPs also advocated the EU-India Human Rights Dialogue to be reinforced and encouraged the EU and its member states to systematically and publicly raise human rights concerns, notably on freedom of expression, religion, and the shrinking space for civil society, with the Indian side at the highest level. On behalf of the European People’s Party Group (EPP), the MEPs who adopted the resolution include Željana Zovko, Sven Simon, Tomáš Zdechovský, Ivan Štefanec, Janina Ochojska, Michaela Šojdrová, Vladimír Bilčík, David Lega, Jiří Pospíšil, Andrey Kovatchev, Antonio López Istúriz White, Inese Vaidere and Seán Kelly. Pedro Marques and Pierre Larrouturou adopted the resolution on behalf of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group.On behalf of Renew Group, the MEPs who endorsed the resolution are Urmas Paet, Petras Auštrevičius, Izaskun Bilbao Barandica, Olivier Chastel, Klemen Grošelj, Svenja Hahn, Moritz Körner, Ilhan Kyuchyuk, Karen Melchior, Dragoş Pîslaru, Frédérique Ries, María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos, Ramona Strugariu, Dragoş Tudorache and Hilde Vautmans. Alviina Alametsä adopted the resolution on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group , while on behalf of the ECR Group European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the members who endorsed are Karol Karski, Bert Jan Ruissen, Witold Jan Waszczykowski, Joachim Stanisław Brudziński, Zbigniew Kuźmiuk, Adam Bielan, Waldemar Tomaszewski, Eugen Jurzyca, Dominik Tarczyński, Assita Kanko, Anna Zalewska and Carlo Fidanza. European Parliamentarians condemn Narendra Modi for implementing radical Hindu policies in India where Muslims and Christians suffer every single day. Members urged India to stop the persecution of Christians.
According to AAKASH HASAN in his article, new assessments of poverty in India have stirred debate over the record of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, with metrics highlighting how far the nation of 1.4 billion still has to go. The release of the Global Hunger Index cast a harsh light on India, which fell six places to rank 107th out of 121 nations, behind struggling neighbors Sri Lanka (64th) and Pakistan (99th).
Then come to their lies and false propaganda. The Indian Air Force launched an aerial strike near ‘Balakot’ On Feb 26, 2019, targeting a religious seminary that India described as a militant camp, and claimed killing more than 300 terrorists but without sharing any shred of evidence to corroborate the claims. Modi’s claims of a successful surgical strike inside Pakistan’s territory were disputed as soon as they were announced. He claimed the death of over three hundred terrorists, but reports from neutral sources such as Reuters, Associated Press, and The New York Times indicated only damaged trees. That by itself was a humiliating exposé of Modi’s lies. Successful nations never proceed on lies. They build their basis on truth.
Readers, these are just few among several other facts which clearly show that India is rapidly progressing towards becoming a certified failed state especially in Modi’s regime. Their so-called claims of being a secular state don’t match with the ground realities. Recent resolution from European Parliament is an eye-opener and the world should urge India to stop violating human rights of minorities.
Writer is senior analyst