Politics
Kathua: The Nightmare called Theocratic Fascism
How right-wing propaganda perpetrated a bestial act and justified it?
Recently, I came across a right-wing supporter who reprimanded me for saying, ‘I hate BJP’. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the ruling party of India. It is the political wing of the social organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
I could see that I ruffled a few feathers of his resolve. He argued that BJP is different from RSS. I told him that how can it be any different from the latter as the formers die-hard members are BJP’s top office-bearers. In fact, the ruling BJP’s lion’s share of ministers belongs to RSS including the present dispensation’s Prime Minister, Vice President, Defence Minister, and the list goes on. Then he said BJP stands for the development of India and Hindu ideology.
I fail to understand that this person with a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences can’t see how bad India is doing on the economic front. From the fastest growing economy in the world with a GDP growth of +9% six years back, the country has hit rock bottom. It’s GDP growth now stands at -23.9%.
Then he asserted that BJP is the only political party in India to have stood behind and fought for Hinduism. I can see that this guy is indoctrinated by right-wing propaganda. He might be regularly consuming fake news and disinformation campaigns of RSS-BJP.
A ruling dispensation should be politically correct at least when they are at the helm for a country to be called a functional democracy. Religion centric politics is the last thing a country dreaming of development would want. So, by trying to justify his belief he has unconsciously agreed that the RSS-BJP is a communally polarizing party. A ruling dispensation that won’t hesitate to destroy the lives of minorities, lower caste people, and Tribals of the country.
The Prime Minister of India’s rise from the chief minister of a state in India (Gujarat) was prompted by a communal pogrom which claimed 2000 lives. This happened in 2002 under his tenure. There are enough shreds of evidence to prove that his hands are not clean. If it was clean then he wouldn’t have enjoyed the God-like status in India.
However, my aim here is not to talk about the Godhra pogrom of 2002 but rather of another incident.
Kathua
On 17 January 2018, the minorities of the Indian state was in for a shock. A young innocent girl was brutally tortured, raped, and murdered by a group of people. This happened in the then state of Jammu Kashmir. The culprits included Sanji Ram, a former civil servant, and priest of the temple in which the minor girl was raped and tortured for a span of seven days.
There were seven accused including Sanji Ram’s son. The other five were all police officers in the special and Jammu Kashmir state police force. Recently, all of them were convicted of the crime and punished for life imprisonment. Sanji Ram’s son was given the benefit of doubt. There was an eighth accused who was a juvenile. His proceedings are yet to take place.
The victim was just eight years old. She was from the Bakkarwal community who were traditional pastoral tribes. The majority of them were Muslims. After 1991, they started settling down in Jammu part of Jammu Kashmir.
Jammu Kashmir is now divided into two union territories on paper. Demographically it is divided into three regions. The Muslim dominated Kashmir valley, the Hindu dominated Jammu, and the Buddhist dominated Ladakh. The division was ripe even before the political division of August 2019.
The Bakkarwal community was given the scheduled tribe status because of their nomadic lifestyle and backwardness. This gave them reservations for a greater opportunity for development after 1991. They started settling in the Jammu region nearby forests with the help of then Chief Minister of Jammu Kashmir state-Sheikh Abdulla. This was not liked by the extreme rightwing forces of RSS in the Jammu region.
Traditionally, the Jammu region’s politics was dominated by RSS-BJP by cashing in on Islamophobia and hatred towards the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley. The well developed fake news and disinformation of RSS were successful in instigating fear among the local populace against the Kashmir Valley. After 1991, the Bakkarwal community’s settlement in Jammu was seen as a threat as they were Muslims and lower caste. The Kathua incident is the culmination of years of hatred filled campaigns against the community.
All the accused are related to RSS. The aftermath of the incident saw rightwing groups led by RSS-BJP supporting the accused. After they were convicted in early 2019, the state BJP called the verdict flawed and that they will challenge it in the supreme court.
The case is seen as RSS’s aim to ward off the Bakkarwal community from the Jammu region. Even 2 BJP ministers of the then Jammu Kashmir cabinet publicly endorsed the accused and supported them. Isn’t this the pinnacle of theocratic fascism?
The detail of the incident is a nightmare. The girl was kidnapped on 10th January 2018. Her dead body was found on 17th January 2018. The forensic diagnosis showed intense torture, repeated rapes, and murder. The irony is this happened in a temple that is supposed to be the house of God. It was done by a priest and a retired government official. The former is supposed to be the voice of God and the latter position is a symbol of respect.
Imagine a father and his son repeatedly raping an eight-year-old girl for seven days. What kind of religion are they prophesying to get involved in such heinous crimes?
Another irony is that all other accused- police officers- were the people obliged to protect innocent civilians. Imagine a society’s protectors getting involved in raping an eight-year-old under the guise of the protection of a religion. Even in the darkest of our nightmares, we might not have dreamed of such acts. But, here they did it without even the slightest of remorse justifying their actions as a kind of necessity to protect their faith and people.
After Kathua, responsible civilians all across the country mourned and took out protest marches against the RSS-BJP’s bestiality. The minorities were consumed with fear. They felt the fear and pain of Kashmiris. Lower caste, Tribals, and South Indians of the country empathized with Kashmiris. But the gullible majority of India opted for RSS-BJP. They won with a humongous majority in 2019 and increased the intensity of the attack on Kashmiris.
To BJP Supporters
The Ph.D. holding BJP supporter justified all the incursions made by the Indian army in Kashmir. According to him, the lockdown imposed upon Kashmir from August 2019 to this day is justified as it is done to curb terrorism. Incarcerating 8 million innocent people, for the actions of a few who are fighting for liberation from their usurpers cannot be justified, can it?
The BJP supporter who criticized me was somehow more civil. My firm stand and vocal criticisms against his party have in the past made me a target of abuses. As one among the minorities, lower caste, and inferior race I have been often called a rat by one of my RSS-BJP colleagues. Often I come across them on social media calling me a terrorist, stooge, or an anti-national for my opposition to RSS-BJP. Ad hominem is their style when they run out of words.
I cannot help but feel for the eight-year-old girl. Empathy makes me feel for her. The fact that tomorrow they might come for me makes me afraid to speak up but the photo of her smile and the wailings of her parents haunt me. The intense trauma, pain, and suffering the girl child went through makes me cry as I write this.
I am Sorry my sister, i am really really sorry…
I would like to tell the BJP supporters that Hinduism that their party claims of being the champions of are not the Hindu religion. It's the dogmatic religion called Brahmanism that is gifted wrapped and sold to you as Hinduism. This is not Mahatma Gandhi’s Hinduism as your head RSS perpetrated his assassination.
Mahatma Gandhi’s Assassin was Nathuram Godse an RSS affiliate. You being an RSS-BJP supporter makes you the opposite of everything that Mahatma Gandhi ever stood for. Narendra Modi’s assertion that he is Mahatma’s disciple while being one of the die-hard members of RSS is facile latitudinarianism that Brahmanism is known for. If you don’t understand this then I am afraid you have lost all your senses to differentiate between right and wrong. You are deeply indoctrinated by RSS-BJP’s right-wing propaganda that gains pleasure out of the torture, rape, and murder of an innocent girl child.
I am sorry that I hate your organization and party but nobody who has a little humanity in them can love you.
