Indian Saffron Politics: Judiciary, Conspiracy against Muslims

By Sajjad Shaukat

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Indian general elections of 2014 on the basis of anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan slogans. Since Narendar Modi, the leader of the extremist ruling party BJP, became Indian prime minister, he started implementing ideology of Hindutva (Hindu Nationalism). In the general elections of 2019, the BJP won huge majority in the Lok Sabha, with 21 seats more than it won in the 2014 elections. Again, during the election campaign, Hindu majority was mobilized on ‘hate Muslim’ slogans and ‘anti-Pakistan’ jargons.

According to Wikipedia, “saffronization…(India, politics, derogatory) The politics of right-wing Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) that seek to make the Indian state adopt policies that recall and glorify Hindu cultural history and heritage of India at the expense of other religious traditions. Related term…saffron terror”.

Under Modi regime, other biased parties also started acting upon the Ideology of Hindutva as various developments like unprecedented rise of Hindu fanaticism, persecution of religious minorities such as Muslims Christians, Sikhs etc., and even lower-caste Hindus like Dalits have been intensified by the prejudiced Hindus. But, Muslims have become special target of extremist Hindus.

Notably, Indian Constitution declares India to be a secular and democratic state, which safeguards the rights of religious minorities, but, under the Modi-led government, discrimination especially against the Muslims—assaults on their places of worships and property—ban on beef and cow slaughter ,creation of war-like situation with Pakistan etc. have clearly proved that Hindu fundamentalist outfits such as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena especially associated with RSS have been promoting religious and ethnic chauvinism in India by propagating the Hindutva ideology.

It is pointed out that in March-April 2022; “Multiple calls by Hindu organizations were made to boycott Muslim and some Christian owned businesses in the states of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Particularly, these calls for the economic boycott of Muslim minority have been supported by state representatives and respective state governments.

Some other discriminatory policies and moves against the Muslims such as the Indian Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA), passed by the Indian Parliament coupled with the National Register of Citizens (NRC)—mainly against the Muslim immigrants particularly from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan—In December 15, 2019, despite daily mass protests, across every state against the CAA and the NRC, which resulted into killing of more than 300 persons-mostly Muslims by the police and prejudiced Hindus, Modi-led regime has not withdrawn the CAA/NRC—attacks on Muslims, their shops, burning of their houses and recently on another mosque etc. might also be cited as example.

While, protests by members of the Muslim minority in response to the decision of the Karnataka High Court to uphold a governmental ban on Muslim girls, wearing the hijab in educational institutions are also notable.

At present, drastic situation against the Muslims in the state of Haryana is of particular attention. Indian authorities had imposed a curfew in various parts of northern Haryana state after the violence began on July 31, this year. Nonetheless, a bloody game is being played by the biased Hindus against the Muslims. Recently, extremist Hindus have boycotted the Muslims and stop purchasing their products in Haryana.

It is of particular attention that on August 5, 2019, Modi-led government abrogated articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution, which gave a special status to the disputed territory of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). New Delhi bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to be ruled by the federal government. On the same day, strict military lockdown was imposed in the IIOJK which continues unabated.

In this respect, the deployment of more than 900,000 military troops in the IIOJK, who have martyred tens of thousands of the Kashmiris, including women and children through brutal tactics-fake encounters, while closure of mosques, shortage of foods, medicines for the patients have further increased the plight of the Kashmiris.

And under a well-planned hidden agenda, Modi-led regime has intensified, bringing ethno- demographic changes in IIOJK. In this context, Indian various moves such as introduction of new laws, amendment of the laws to facilitate non-Kashmiris and outsiders in order to usurp the rights of the Muslim Kashmiris—issuance of domicile certificates to more than 800000 non-Kashmiris, registration of almost 2.5 million new non-local voters in the IIOJK—failure of fake drama to host G-20 summit on May 22-24, 2023 in the IIOJK, from time to time, violations of the Line of Control (LoC) by shelling inside Pakistanis side of Kashmir—in violation of the ceasefire agreement of 2003 might be cited as instance.

In fact, these anti-Muslim developments and moves are part of the Indian saffron politics, which has also enveloped Indian key state institutions, especially judiciary.

In this context, top Indian court closed all proceedings relating to the 2002 riots in the western state of Gujarat, which killed over a thousand people as well as the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid (Mosque).

Hearing in the 2002 Gujarat riots case, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India comprising Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit and Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and J.B. Pardiwala disposed of 10 cases, including one filed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which sought further investigation into the 2002 communal riots—left more than 1,000 dead. Chief Justice U.U. Lalit stated that cases have now become infructuous with the passage of time.

In its judgment, the bench observed: “This Court is of the view that the Court needs not entertain these petitions any longer. The matters are therefore disposed of as being infructuous.”

The Gujarat riots were sparked by a fire in a train in Godhra in 2002, which killed 59 Hindu pilgrims coming from Ayodhya. Muslims were blamed by Hindus for their role in the train fire. Immediately after the tragedy, Hindu rioters hacked and burned to death over 1,000 Muslims.

Meanwhile, another bench of the apex court ordered the suspension of all proceedings in the 1992 demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. While mentioning that a larger bench of the Supreme Court had already pronounced a verdict on the Ayodhya matter, a bench of three judges stated that “nothing survives in the matter now”.

In its biased verdict, the court even neglected the authenticity of audio and video evidence submitted in the case.

The 400-year-old Babri Masjid was razed to the ground on December 6, 1992, by a large group of activists from the Hindu nationalist organizations VHP and RSS. They claimed the mosque was built on the birthplace of the deity Ram. Earlier, the Supreme Court, which issued the ownership decision in November 2019, disagreed that the mosque was built on any demolished temple.

The mosque was built on Emperor Babur’s orders in 1528 by Mughal Kingdom military officer Mir Baqi. It was targeted after a political rally involving approximately 150,000 Hindu activists and BJP volunteers gathered at the site turned violent.

A subsequent investigation into the incident identified 68 people responsible, including many senior leaders of the ruling BJP and the VHP, who allegedly delivered provocative speeches inciting the mob to knock down the structure.

But, the apex court’s judgment upset the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM), an umbrella group of various Muslim organizations. AIMMM President Navaid Hamid told Anadolu Agency that the court has favored the perpetrators of the Babri mosque demolition over the aggrieved party, the Muslim community like the perpetrators of the Gujarat riots.

The verdict encouraged violent offenders, while simultaneously disheartening the aggrieved party, and may pave the way for an atmosphere of losing hope in the judiciary.

In the faulty decision, the court pinned the blame on miscreants mingled among the crowd instead, adding that leaders such as Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, another former cabinet minister, had tried to keep the mob from turning violent.

On the same day, the judgment was announced, Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez, in a statement, strongly condemned shameful acquittal of those responsible for demolishing the historic Babri Masjid.

The Spokesperson elaborated: “The Hindutva-inspired Indian judiciary miserably failed to deliver the justice again…if there was a semblance of justice in the so-called largest democracy, the individuals, who had boasted of the criminal act publicly, could not have been set free…this is yet another manifestation of the pliant judiciary under the extremist BJP-RSS regime in which extremist Hindutva’ ideology takes precedence over all principles of justice and international norms.

Indicating various anti-Muslim moves, he further stated: “These reprehensible developments with state complicity, coupled with RSS-BJP’s deep-rooted hatred against minorities, particularly Muslims, point to India’s fast descent into a Hindu Rashtra, where minorities have been relegated as second-class citizens…willful targeting of Muslims is rampant in today’s India…the BJP-RSS anti-Muslim agenda is most visible in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) which remains under continued military siege and the BJP continues to implement its sinister policies to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory…the RSS-BJP regime and the Sangh Parivar are responsible for the continued desecration and demolition of mosques in India in an organised manner as they did during the Gujarat massacre of 2002 and Delhi programme in 2020…the attacks by Hindu zealots on places of worship of Muslims have continued even during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

It is mentionable that the demolition of the Babri Masjid sparked Muslim outrage around the country, provoking several months of inter-communal rioting between Hindu and Muslim communities, causing the death of at least 2,000 people, majority of whom were Muslims. The governments of several neighboring countries, including those of the Islamic World condemned the Indian government for failing to stop the destruction of the historical mosque.

Besides, Modi’s anti-Muslim chauvinism took a dangerous turn on August 5, 2020 when he laid the foundation stone for the Hindu Ram temple at bhoomi pujan ceremony at the site of the demolished Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

Nevertheless, BJP not only embraces act and policies which discriminate against Muslims and other non-Hindu religious minorities, but also turns up its pressure on media and judiciary. Modi’s pressure on judiciary can be judged from the verdict of the Indian Supreme Court which on December 11, this year upheld the Modi-led government’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status (Article 370) in 2019—a move was duly approved by the Indian Parliament.

Besides other Kashmiri leaders, Pakistan’s interim Foreign Minister, Jalil Abbas Jelani on December 13, 2023 firmly rejected the Indian Supreme Court’s decision, stating that India lacked the authority to unilaterally alter the status of occupied Kashmir.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

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