The Slide Toward a Saffron Reich (Akhand Bharat)
Irredentist fantasy hearkening back to an “glory era” of Hindu hegemony far beyond India’s
current borders, compared to Hitler’s vision of a Nordic Aryan Reich, Dangerous Expansist Ideas
“Hindutva’s irredentist fantasies might not square up to history or logic but they are core to its
philosophy. Leaders of the Rashtrya Swamaysevak Sangh are frequently seen declaiming against
the backdrop of an Akhand Bharat map and just in December, 2015 Ram Madhav, the general
secretary of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, made it clear that an Akhand Bharat was a goal of
his.”
[https://scroll.in/article/807700/if-incorrect-depictions-of-indias-borders-are-a-crime-will-rss-be-p
rosecuted-for-akhand-bharat] (514 characters, including URL)
“Speaking at the E-Agenda Aaj Tak, former Army chief and Minister of State (MoS) for Road
Transport and Highways VK Singh said that the entire Kashmir belongs to India. He said even
PoK (Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir) is our part and asserted that it will come to India on its own.
Talking about elections in Gilgit-Baltistan, General VK Singh said, ‘Pakistan’s rulers are not even
able to manage their country, their army is deciding what to do to the people. In this situation, the
people there are trying to do something so that the world stands with them.’
The Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways further said that he does not think anyone
will stand with Pakistan. ‘The way India is taking the entire world together and by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s image in the global sphere, we will definitely benefit and get what we want in
the end,” VK Singh said.’”
…
“’Entire Kashmir belongs to India, PoK is our part too and it will come to us automatically. I have
spent 12 years in Kashmir. Judgments are made and these will continue to be made, there is no
need to give weight to every judgment’….
Singh said that he is not going to say what the government will do or has to do, and added: ‘it will
happen when the time comes.’
‘I will not tell you that we are going to do this, or we will do that. or what we have to do. It will
happen when the time comes. A plan is ready. The day we see an opportunity, action will be
taken.’”
[https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/agenda-aajtak-minister-vk-singh-former-army-chief-pakist
an-gilgit-baltistan-1676190-2020-05-09?fbclid=IwAR0Ccv8qkIOVYbiXY-Kk8SMpcHw9TIi0c
NchXGOeqJ1oaSE_GIj8Axcted4]
KARACHI:New Delhi is no stranger to issuing hyperbolic statements and war rhetoric against
Pakistan with the Indian army’s retired major Gaurav Arya at the forefront of those spewing
hatred from television screens.
Gaurav, who serves as the consulting editor for Republic TV and a host for one of their shows,
went as far saying,”Now you will see how the blood of their [Pakistani] soldiers will be shed in
Balochistan.”
…
He went on to claim that he had the numbers of all of the sardars of Balochistan,”Bugti, Marri,
Mengal…you name it… I will send it to you with their locations”.
As the outrageous outburst went on, the defense analyst claimed New Delhi would make
“Pakistan pay ten folds for its actions in Kashmir”.
…
“Gaurav sahab, You have become quite the hit in Pakistan after your recent comments,” Cheema
quipped.
“We started taking what you said seriously the day self-confessed Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav
was arrested and the subsequent unearthing of the Research and Analysis Wing’s network in the
province”.
Jadhav, also a serving commander of the Indian Navy, was convicted in 2017 for fanning
terrorism in Balochistan and Karachi, almost a year after his arrest in the largest province of
Pakistan.
Cheema said that Islamabad had handed over a dossier to the Indian government detailing New
Delhi’s attempts to destabilise Pakistan.”
[https://tribune.com.pk/story/2218444/3-ex-indian-army-officer-threatens-shed-blood-pakistani-s
oldiers-balochistan-live-tv]
Blaming Muslims for Country’s Problems, compared to Hitler Blaming Jews for Europe’s
Problems
“Further, Savarkar publicly criticised the Jews for failing to absorb into the German national
fabric and compared them to Muslims in India as well. In 1939, at the 21st session of the Hindu
Mahasabha, he is noted to have said that ‘the Indian Muslims are on the whole more inclined to
identify themselves with Muslims outside India than Hindus next door, like Jews in Germany.’”
[https://indianexpress.com/article/research/vinayak-damodar-savarkar-135th-birth-anniversary-he
-admired-hitler-and-other-lesser-known-facts-about-him-5194470/] (540 characters, including
URL)
Stripping Muslims of Citizenship, compared to Nazi Germany’s Nuremberg Laws, Indefinite
Detention
“The Indian government is building mass detention camps after almost two million people were
told they could be effectively stripped of citizenship.
Around 1.9m people in the north-eastern state of Assam were excluded when India published the
state’s final National Register of Citizens (NRC) list in August.
Those excluded from the register will have to appeal to prove they are citizens. The UN and other
international rights groups have expressed concern that many could be rendered stateless.”
[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/assam-india-detention-camps-bangladesh-nrc-li
st-a9099251.html] (606 characters, including URL)
Tacitly Allowing the Persecution of Mulsim and Other Religious Minorities, Compared to the Third
Reich’s Krystallnacht
“The key findings of the report noted “repeated incitement” to violence.
‘Throughout the Delhi Assembly elections campaign from December 2019 to February 2020,
there were a number of speeches by Delhi BJP leaders inciting people to violence against
anti-CAA protesters,’ a DMC statement said.
‘Violence broke out in different pockets in North East Delhi almost immediately after instigating
speech of Kapil Mishra on February 23 at Maujpur, in which he openly called for forcefully
removing the (anti-CAA) protesters at Jafarabad,’ it said.”
…
“In several areas of North East Delhi, properties owned by Muslims were looted, burnt and
completely destroyed. Armed mobs chanting slogans selectively attacked Muslim individuals,
houses, shops, vehicles, mosques and other properties,” the statement said.
The violence claimed over 50 lives besides injuries to scores of people.
‘Multiple testimonies collected by the fact finding committee recount reports of police inaction
even as violence unfolded, or of police not reaching despite repeated calls on emergency call
number,’ it said.”
[https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-bjp-leaders-incited-people-delhi-minorit
ies-commissions-report-on-february-riots/356856]
“BJP and RSS leader Rajeshwar Singh,has, in an example of intimidation and hate speech said
that ‘Muslims and Christians will be wiped out of India by December 31, 2021.’ He further said
that ‘we’ have decided that Islam and Christianity will be finished in India by 2021. He asserted,
‘this is the pledge taken by my colleagues.This is our pledge.’”
….
“Over the past few years, UP’s Dharm Jagran Samiti’s head Rajeshwar Singh has periodically
defiantly made similar assertions: “Our target is to make India a Hindu Rashtra by 2021. The
Muslims and Christians don’t have any right to stay here. So they would either be converted to
Hinduism or forced to run away from here”
…
India under Modi 1.0 and Modi 2.0 has seen the widespread legitimisation of such provocative
claims:
● A chorus of such speeches with the Hindu Mahasabha, announcing the launch of its
“Islam-free India” campaign;
● Sadhvi Deva Thakur gives a call to declare emergency and sterilise Muslims and
Christians to control their population;
● Sadhvi Sarawati gives the call to hang the ‘beef eaters’ and attack all secular people;
●
150 Hindu outfits openly hold a 4 day convention in Goa calling for turning India into a Hindu
Rashtra by 2023.”
[https://sabrangindia.in/article/muslims-and-christians-will-be-wiped-out-india-december-31-202
1-bjp-leader-rajeshwar-singh]
The Supreme Court’s Impartiality and Integrity Affected
“Some examples of its failures in this regard have been the Court’s refusal to strike down laws
like UAPA that should have no place in a constitutional democracy; its unconscionable delay in
hearing major cases (such as with regard to election funding and the Citizenship Amendment
Act); and its denial of basic human rights to the children and students of Kashmir, deprived for a
full year of access to education and knowledge as a consequence of the longest internet shutdown
in the history of any democracy.”
…
“Thus, in a commentary on the last chief justice, Gautam Bhatia writes that “under his tenure, the
Supreme Court has gone from an institution that — for all its patchy history — was at least
formally committed to the protection of individual rights as its primary task, to an institution that
speaks the language of the executive, and has become indistinguishable from the executive” (The
Wire, March 16, 2019).”
…
“If, on the other hand, the forces of authoritarianism and sectarian bigotry continue to gather
momentum, and the Supreme Court does little or nothing to check them, then the verdict of
history and of constitutional scholarship will be even harsher than it is at present. In that case, the
Court of today may come to be viewed by future generations of Indians not merely as an
executive Court, but as a collaborationist Court.”
[https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/supreme-court-democracy-politicisation-judici
ary-kashmir-covid-6552287/]
Dissent Being Silenced
“The station’s uplink suddenly went dead. Mr. Kunhiraman’s image dissolved into a blue screen.
A bland message told viewers there was no signal. “We regret the inconvenience,” it said.
But this was no technical difficulty. The station had been cut off by an order from India’s
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The government decided to block the channel for 48
hours because it had covered February’s biggest news story — the mob attacks on Muslims in
New Delhi that flared into broader unrest — in a way that seemed “critical toward Delhi Police
and R.S.S.,” the order said.”
…
“Since Mr. Modi came to power in 2014, they say, his government has tried to control the
country’s news media, especially the airwaves, like no other prime minister in decades. Mr. Modi
has shrewdly cultivated the media to build a cult of personality that portrays him as the nation’s
selfless savior.
At the same time, senior government officials have pressed news outlets — berating editors,
cutting off advertising, ordering tax investigations — to ignore the uglier side of his party’s
campaign to transform India from a tolerant, religiously diverse country into an assertively Hindu
one.”
…
“But Mr. Modi’s ministers have leaned on business leaders to cut off support to independent
media, slowly strangling their operations. His government has pressured media owners to fire
journalists who have criticized the prime minister and told them to stop running features like
hate-crime trackers that have embarrassed Mr. Modi’s party.”
[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/world/asia/modi-india-press-media.html]
“On Saturday, I spent five hours at a local police station in New Delhi with my brother filing a
complaint of criminal intimidation after I was flooded with rape and death threats online. Users
on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter — with bios that described them as “nationalists” and “proud
Indians” — threatened to burn me alive, rape me in the presence of my family and cut me into
pieces. One Instagram message invoked what happened to my friend and fellow journalist, Gauri
Lankesh, a critic of Hindu nationalist organizations who was shot dead outside her house in
Bangalore in 2017.
The abuse came after I shared my opinion about the killing of a civilian in Kashmir. In a tweet, I
wrote: “When it comes to Kashmir, there are no humanists, just convenient nationalists.” That
was enough to stoke ultranationalist rage, which sees Kashmir not through the prism of humanity
but through dangerous, misguided and blind patriotism.”
…
“An intelligence official in Delhi warned me against visiting Kashmir after the publication of a
column because I might be arrested. But I’m not the only one attacked. Multiple stories by
journalists from the BBC, the New York Times and other foreign publications are discredited too
as agenda-driven journalism.
Kashmiri journalists deal with intimidation constantly. Photojournalist Masrat Zahra, who was
recently awarded the International Women’s Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award,
was charged with sedition in April under draconian terror charges. The same month, Peerzada
Ashiq, one of Kashmir’s bravest voices, was questioned by the Jammu and Kashmir police for his
reportage in the Hindu newspaper.”
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/07/threats-censorship-are-price-questioningnarratives-about-kashmir/]