Leaders keep silent after anti-Muslim conference
Hundreds of rightwing Hindu activists and monks rose in unison at a conference last week to take an oath: They would turn India, constitutionally a secular republic, into a Hindu nation, even if doing so required dying and killing.
“If 100 of us are ready to kill 2 million of them, then we will win and make India a Hindu nation,” said Pooja Shakun Pandey, a leader of Hindu Mahasabha, a group that espouses militant Hindu nationalism, referring to the country’s Muslims. “Be ready to kill and go to jail.”
Even by the standards of the rising anti-Muslim fury in India, the threeday conference in the city of Haridwar, 150 miles north of New Delhi, produced the most blatant and alarming call for violence in recent years.
The crowded auditorium, where right-wing Hindu monks called for other Hindus to arm themselves and kill Muslims, included influential religious leaders with close ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing party, and even some members of the party.
Videos of the event spread widely on social media in India. Yet Modi has maintained a characteristic silence that analysts say can be interpreted by his most extreme supporters as a tacit signal of protection.
Police, who readily jail rights activists and comedians on charges lacking evidence, have been slow to take action. Even opposition political groups have been restrained in their response, an indication of the degree to which right-wing Hindu nationalism has gripped the country since Modi came to office in 2014.
The inflammatory remarks come as some states governed by Modi’s
Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, are holding elections, including in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where the conference was held. Modi was busy campaigning last week in Uttar Pradesh for Yogi Adityanath, his hard-line protege and the state’s chief minister, who has frequently fanned anti-Muslim hatred.
Multiple episodes of violence against Muslims have been reported during election season, including attacks by mobs trying to close businesses owned by Muslims.
“There are virtually only a handful of political leaders left who even mention the need to preserve India’s secularism,” said Gilles Verniers, a professor of political science at Ashoka University near New Delhi. “The BJP may face increasing political challenges, but it has won its cultural war, with lasting effects on India’s democracy, and on India’s largest minority.”
“We are fast losing everything in this country, including the right to worship,” said Niyaz Farooqi, a Muslim who works in an automobile showroom in Gurugram. “A right given to us by the constitution of this country.”
On Friday, police in Uttarakhand announced that they had opened an investigation into the conference but that no arrests had been made. Officials said they have registered a case against organizers of the conference for promoting “enmity between different groups on grounds of religion,” which can mean a jail term of five years.