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Modi has been compared to Milosevic and Hitler
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By
Md.
Zeyaul Haque, Special to
IslamOnline
NEW
DELHI, September 17 (IslamOnline) - For days, the Bhartiya Janata
Party (BJP), ruling the western state of Gujarat, has been denying
Chief Minister Narendra Modi‘
s hate campaign against Muslims at his "pride" rallies, but
nailing the lie, Star TV played the speech repeatedly Sunday and
Monday, September 15-16.
Instead
of being ashamed and saying sorry, BJP, many of whose functionaries
– including Modi – have been accused of involvement in the recent
anti-Muslim pogrom in
Gujarat
, claimed the Star TV tapes
were "doctored."
One
Gujarat
minister, seen by victims
as a perpetrator of the pogrom, went to the extent of defending the
hate speech.
“There has been a
trend in
Gujarat
of delivering such speeches
over the past 40 years,” he said.
The
Gujarat Chief Minister, who has often been compared to Yugoslav war
crime suspect Slobodan Milosevic for his viciousness, was reported by
the Times of India, the country’ oldest and most
prestigious daily, as having told a rally that relief camps housing
Muslim survivors of the pogrom should be closed because they had
become “factories for producing babies”.
He
said people (Muslims) who multiplied thus “should be taught a
lesson”, in addition to quite a few anti-Muslim remarks at the
rally. These pre-election rallies are part of Modi’s weeks-long "pride
march"
through the state, in which he addresses crowds every few kilometers.
The
“pride” in the “pride march” is about having taught the Muslim
minority a lesson during the pogrom which lasted more than two months—March,
April and early May. As many as 2,000 Muslims were killed, hundreds
others were raped, thousands of homes were destroyed and 100,000 were
forced into relief camps across the state.
Victims
and a dozen private inquiry commissions have indicted BJP leaders for
the monumental crime. Even state organizations like the National Human
Rights Commission, National Minority Commission and Election
Commission have censured the state government.
The
BJP, which leads the ruling coalition at Center, has been backing Modi
despite tremendous pressure to sack him for his acts of omission and
commission.
Instead
of reining him in, Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, patted Modi on the
back Sunday, September 15, for his pride marches. BJP Secretary
General and former Union law minister Arun Jaitley claimed there were
“inaccuracies” in media reports on Modi’s speech.
Hate
speech is a serious offence under Indian law as well as per
obligations
India
has to honor as a signatory
to international covenants.
Despite
condemnation from national media and intelligentsia, the BJP is
unrepentant. Even party chief Venkiah Naidu, who had cautioned Modi
against using too blatant anti-Muslim rhetoric, is now backing him.
Outraged
by the virulence of Modi’s speech, the National Commission for
Minorities had demanded the audio and video tapes of the speech from
Gujarat
government. However, the
state bureaucracy said they were not able to procure them.
The
fascist tactics of Modi have scandalized the civil society here. Quite
a few have drawn parallels with Milosevic and Hitler. Yet others have
compared him to General Rex Dyer, who in 1919 opened fire on a meeting
of Indian civilians and killed 379, wounding another 1500.
Those
were the last years of the all-powerful
British Empire
. Popular columnist
Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar wrote in his column in the Times of
India Sunday, September 8, that Modi was teaching Muslims a
lesson as Dyer taught Indians.
Dyer
took pride in his act like Modi does in his. For that Dyer was sacked
by the empire. "Let us mete out the same fate to Narendra
Modi," Aiyar wrote.
