India is the world’s largest democracy with the second largest military by size. An
emerging economic power directly shaping the lives of around 1.3 billion people.
Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, Indian national politics as well as the
outlook of India in the International political arena changed a lot. The idea of
“Rising and Shining India” just like “Make America Great” attracted millions of
voters to the BJP camp during the elections. But is Modi’s politics just confined to
the elections?

Start of Journey
Narender Modi started his journey when he was just 8 years old, joined Hindu
Ultranationalist paramilitary organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
RSS always remained in the news due to extremist and violent activities. RSS an
extremist group was not just banned during the British rule but even got banned
thrice Post-Independence. At that time Modi’s struggle was not political but
ideological when in 1971 he became full time member of RSS. RSS never joined
the politics but always covertly played role in the Indian politics. BJP an active
front face of RSS, is full of RSS inspired leaders and even members as well
including current India Prime Minister Modi who was assigned by the RSS to join
BJP in 1985. Modi quickly rose to power and became Secretary General of BJP in
2001. From criminal negligence during the Gujrat 2002 riots to his rise to power in
2014, the journey remained full of controversial statements and violence. Due to
his strong ideological foundations designed by the RSS, Modi always had a vision
of exclusive society, a society dominated by the right-wing Ultranationalists with
little to no space for minorities- not just Christians and Muslims but also for lower
caste Hindus as well. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar who laid the foundations of RSS in
1925, gave this idea of Hindutva with the slogan “One nation, one culture, one
race, one religion,” which is Hinduism.

Modi rise to Power

In a diverse secular society like of India just far-right views were not enough to
win the elections so during 2014 elections Modi campaign funded by corporates
had its main focus on Economic prosperity. According to different estimates and
reports Modi spent over $700 million on the campaign. After taking the charge as Prime Minister in 2014, Modi projected his vision on the state level. Apart from
propagation of far-right views through the powerful media, Modi also facilitated
the corporation who funded his campaign to establish their businesses by
abolishing many Environmental and Labor laws. Couple of years down the lane,
the ground was favorable due to immense propaganda by the Media. Modi slowly
unfolded his real agenda. For the internal domination Modi worked on Hindu
Majoritarianism- galvanized Hindu majority population of India. Now it was all
about building Ram Mandir at the place of Babri Masjid, returning Hindu Pandits
to the Indian administered Kashmir valley, Protecting the sanctity of Cows across
the country. Modi is ambitious to give rise to a new civilization, a civilization
which can bring back thousands of year-old Hindu rule in the region. But the
direction in which the Indian state is moving can only give rise to a “Fascist,
Capitalistic violent Islamophobic society”, which poses serious threats not just to
the Minorities but to the regional peace as well.
Modi’s Hindutva vision is not just limited to cultural domination of the Far-right
Hinduism but also covers political and military domination in the region. The idea
of “Akhand Bharat” (One India) remained top agenda of RSS, according to which
Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lankan, Nepal, Bhutan all are one country and
must be united under the Hindu rule. To implement his agenda Modi defined his
opponents both internally and externally and formed policies based on his vision
to deal with those opponents. That is why contrary to 2014 election campaign, in
2019 campaign “Main Bhi Chowkidar” was more about military domination over
Pakistan. Soon after winning 2019 elections Modi unfolded his Fascist agenda in
India by scraping article 35.A and 370- ending special status of Kashmir, which is
internationally recognized as a disputed territory even by the U.N, introduced
controversial Indian Citizenship Act or Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). This
didn’t end here the democracy degraded in India, so do India’s position in terms
of religious freedom but most importantly Post Modi India witnessed an
exponential rise in Mob lynching and violence against minorities especially against
Muslims and Christians. 2020 Dehli riots in which 53 people were killed, majority
Muslims were shot, slashed with repeated blows, or were set on fire – is a good
example of how the fascists and extremists groups are allowed to freely carrying
out violence in India. This is also evident from the backlash after the latest
farmers protests, which exposed the so called “Secular Democracy” of the India
when Dehli police launched an FIR against climate activist Greta Thunberg for merely tweeting in favor of farmers. Apart from this organized campaign
involving Indian actors and Cricketers against International Celebrities. This is not
the first time Modi regime has shut down the internet and jailed activists and
journalists. Post 5 August world witnessed similar scenes in Kashmir, when Indian
held Kashmir under siege for almost a year, with no access to internet, schools
and health care. The International community failed to take it up at that time but
this is the time International community must stand united against this
Chauvinism and extremism because regional peace and safety of millions of
people is at stake.

Author: Talha Ahmad (Editor in Chief PSF)

About Author: Talha Ahmad is a Freelance Journalist. He is an independent Geo-Political Analyst, commentator, and keen observer of International relations. Talha Ahmad’s opinions have been featured in different News-websites like Daily times, Pakistan Today, Global Village Space, Morning Mail. He can be reached on Twitter @talhahamad967.

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