India has been systematically denying its minorities including the Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, and others, the voting rights they deserve by its secular law. During the recently concluded state and regional assembly elections held in various parts of the country, many Muslim voters were denied the right to vote as their names were not included in the voters’ list. This trend has been going on for the last several elections.
India has more than 200 million Muslims in the country. However, only two members of the parliament are Muslims. No mainstream party now takes the r\isk to issue an assembly ticket to Muslim candidates. All this is being done in a country that boasts itself as the largest democracy.
The BJP-led Modi government has been meticulously working on making the country for the Hindus only. Many RSS and BJP leaders have asked the Muslims and other minorities either to accept Hinduism or leave the country. It has been persecuting minorities since the day it came into power some five years ago. Churches and mosques have been burned and demolished during its reign. Mob-lynching has become a commonplace phenomenon in the Hindu majority areas.
Recently, the Modi government has declared 4 million Muslims and other minorities from Assam, a state famous for its tea plantations, as foreigners who infiltrated from Bangladesh.
On August 5, 2019, India stripped its majority-Muslim state, Kashmir, of the special rights it had enjoyed since 1947, by revoking Article 370. It imposed curfew in the valley which continues even after the lapse of 78 days. Up until recently, the Kashmiris did not have access to any communication channels. There were no telephones, no Internet and no other way to know what was going on in the valley and out of it. Terrorizing its minorities has become a state policy of India.
If the current trend continues, a bloody civil war could begin in different parts of the country destroying the fabric of its society. The insurgencies going on in various parts of the country could get escalated.