At least 46 people were killed in Hindu-Muslim violence in northeast New Delhi, amid mounting international criticism that authorities failed to protect minority Muslims
Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy said the sole responsibility of the violence that ensued in Delhi last week, leaving both Hindus and Muslims dead, lies in the hands of the country’s right wing Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “fascist regime.”
The eminent author in a scathing opinion piece published in Scroll.in was quoted as saying, “A democracy that is not governed by a constitution and one whose institutions have all been hollowed out can only ever become a majoritarian state. You can agree or disagree with a constitution as a whole or in part – but to act as though it does not exist as this government is doing is to completely dismantle democracy. Perhaps this is the aim. This is our version of the coronavirus. We are sick.”
Calling the violence, a battle between fascists and anti-fascists Roy wrote, “It is a manifestation of the ongoing battle between fascists and anti-fascists – in which Muslims are the first among the Fascists’ ‘enemies.’ To call it a riot or a ‘danga,’ or ‘Left’ versus ‘Right’ or even ‘Right’ versus ‘Wrong’ as many are doing, is dangerous and obfuscatory.”
Roy spoke about how leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) like Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Verma had, in the run up to the Delhi elections, incited people to attack and kill anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and had called them “traitors.”
Warning against its evils, Roy said, “The sole purpose of the NPR-NRC-CAA is to destabilize and divide people not just in India but across the whole subcontinent. If they do indeed exist, these phantom millions of human beings who India’s current Home Minister calls Bangladeshi “termites”, cannot be kept in detention centres and cannot be deported. By using such terminology and by thinking up such a ridiculous, diabolic scheme, this government is actually endangering the tens of millions of Hindus who live in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who they pretend to be concerned about, but who could suffer the backlash of this bigotry emanating from New Delhi.”
Roy, who has been a vocal critic of the Modi government, has been attacked repeatedly by BJP leaders for her remarks against the CAA, NRC and NPR.
Ever since the BJP led Indian government has passed the CAA, protests against the controversial citizenship law are continued across the country and every citizen of the country is worried over how to prove his citizenship.
At least 46 people were killed in Hindu-Muslim violence in northeast New Delhi, amid mounting international criticism that authorities failed to protect minority Muslims.
The clashes began over a citizenship law that Modi's Hindu nationalist government introduced in December providing a path to Indian citizenship for six religious groups from neighbouring countries - but not Muslims.
Critics say the law is discriminatory and comes on top of other measures such as withdrawal of autonomy for Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir that has deepened disquiet about the future of India's 200 million Muslims.
Critics of the government however blamed this week's violence on members of Modi's BJP, which was trounced in local Delhi elections at the beginning of the month.
The violence morphed into street battles between Hindu and Muslim groups with the police largely ineffective in ending the violence.
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