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Victory is not all: Modi must reassure the minorities

30 mai 2019, 12:32

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Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have won a historic sweeping victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and has expanded their majority in India, the biggest democracy in the world, with 900 million eligible voters. The 2019 elections have seen the highest percentage of electors who have voted as well as the highest participation of women in the history of India. Narandra Modi remains a powerful divisive figure both domestically and internationally over his Hindu nationalist beliefs and his controversial role in the 2012 Gujarati riots. After all, the BJP electoral base is found in the RSS, a social movement whose credo is Hindustan – the country of Hindus. Nonetheless, he is also the most popular Indian leader since Mahatma Gandhi both inside and outside India. He is a running star.

With his second term as Prime Minister of India, it is the responsibility of Modi to reassure the minorities. Some of his lieutenants have, through inflammatory language, causes religious and communal tensions. The minority communities in India are composed of Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains and they form part of approximately 20% of the Indian population. By the year 2050, it is projected that India shall have the largest Muslim population, although India will keep a Hindu majority.

A Hindu nationalist government conveys fear to the minorities of India. At least 44 people had been killed over the last three years by cow protection groups. At the receiving end, there were 36 Muslims and many more of them were injured in more than 100 attacks. The cow being the Gaw Mata – mother cow for Hindus, opponents to Modi had said that cow slaughter laws have become more stringent under Modi and members of the BJP have “increasingly used communal rhetoric that has spurred a violent vigilante campaign against beef consumption and those linked to it. ” Modi has condemned cow related violence by saying, “Killing people in the name of “Gau Bhakti” (worship of cow) is not acceptable” or “Let’s all work together. Let’s create the India of Mahatma Gandhi’s dreams. Let’s create an India, our freedom fighters would be proud of.” He clearly said that nobody should take the law in his hands.

According to Hate crime watch in 2018, after a decade, hate crimes which are religiously motivated have been on the rise in India. More attacks were carried out in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP is led by Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister. Most of the hate crime attacks were conducted on minorities and Muslims and people from the Dalit community were the victims of such attacks. Last year, there were two Hindu extremist attacks on the Christians in Assam, the northern part of India. In one instance, the pastor was threatened with further violence if he does not stop conversions. A group of Indian Rights activities had written to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres an open letter, when he visited India last October, to say that religious and political freedom have declined since Prime Minister Modi has come to power.

It has been argued that Hindu Extremist groups have interpreted the BJP being in power as a “mandate” to advance their cause of making India a Hindu State. Mahatma Gandhi himself has always been against the idea of India as a Hindu Nation. For him, “India is for all who live there”. Modi has also strongly condemned attacks of churches in other countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Egypt, but his opponents have blamed him for keeping silent in attacks of churches in his own country. During a gathering of Christians in Delhi this year, Modi has reassured Christians that his government will protect freedom of religion. In front of 1, 200 Christians and the Cardinal George Alencherry, Modi said, “We cannot accept violence against any religion on any pretext and I strongly condemn such violence. My government will act strongly in this regard.”

He even stated that his government will ensure, “freedom of faith and that everyone has the undeniable right to retain or adopt the religion of his or her choice and that no religious group whether belonging to the minority or majority will be allowed to incite hatred against others, overtly or covertly.” His government “will be a government that gives equal respect to all religions.” He even made a request to all religious groups “to act with restraint, mutual respect and tolerance to safeguard the religious rights of all.” To be fair, minority issues and hate crimes have always existed in India.

The preamble of the Indian Constitution asserted that India is a secular state. However, the relationship of the state and religion is no-where defined. The laws accept all religions. Secularism is different from the western world, where a secular state means a separation between religion and state and equal citizenship to everyone regardless of his religion. In India, secular means equal treatment of all the religions. Unlike the term “laïcité” of the French concept, in India, the government provides financial support to religious groups and accepts religious law over governmental institutions.

India has not used the notion of secularism to oppress its minorities. In fact, Muslims have sharia based personal laws on matters as inheritance, divorce, marriage and alimony, while Christian, Hindus and Sikhs have common law. Religious personal law have at times brought a number of issues in India such as polygamy, child marriage, unequal inheritance rights and divorce laws favorable to male.

Article 2. 2 of the UN Declaration of Minority Rights states that persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life. Article 4.5 of the UN Declaration of Minority Rights declare that “states should consider appropriate measures so that persons belonging to minorities may participate fully in the economic progress and development in their country.”

The Muslim representation in the Lok Sabah is declining. Minorities still undergo considerably larger socio-economic deprivation than the majority community in India. In the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Michelle Bachelet, the UN Human Rights chief, has warned that the “divisive policies” of India could undermine its economic growth and that discriminatory political agendas will further place vulnerable people at risk, in an already unequal society. India already has the world’s fastest economic growing economy, and is ahead of China. By Modi reassuring the minorities, he shall lead India to its next level of development and modernism and shall make the Glory of India.

We, in Mauritius might soon receive the visit of Modi, during the inauguration of the Metro Express. He shall then gather how we, in Mauritius, live in a multicultural country. However, our national unity must not be taken for granted. And then, there are many evil minded persons who would happily inflame our social fabric for short term gain. National unity is like a flower plant that you have to take care of. Water it, or else it dies.