Lawmakers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried to assault an opposition member in Indian Kashmir’s parliament on Thursday as the controversy over eating beef threatened to spiral out of control.
Abdul Rashid Sheikh said that about 10 to 14 BJP members “just pounced on me as soon as I entered the house”, saying he had feared for his life. Footage showed legislators rounding on Rashid, trying to hit him as others held them back.
The assault came in response to Rashid holding a provocative “beef party” to protest the government’s efforts to ban beef in the Himalayan state. The incident came only a week after a mob in Delhi killed a Muslim man for allegedly eating beef. After a senior minister asked the UN to investigate the poor state of minorities in India, Modi‘s vague response was to call for ‘Hindus and Muslim to unite’ for the development of the country. An even more glaringly right-wing reaction came in the form of a concert by Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali having to be cancelled in Mumbai after protests by the right-wing Shiv Sena party. While the Indian prime minister has called for calm and religious harmony, he seems to have done little in practice to keep a check on the antics of his own parliamentarians and party workers, as well as his allies. It took him a week to break his silence on the lynching episode, while his ministers continued to make statements that seemed to defend the murder. India should remember that extremism and religious fundamentalism will only succeed in preventing it from achieving its goal of becoming a global economic power. Indian authorities have now requested Pakistan Railways to postpone the India-bound Samjhota Express train service due to an ongoing protest by farmers in Indian Punjab. How does a farmers’ protest result in the decision to stop the train? For one, the protest includes stopping rail services as one of its tactics. But what is worrying is that Indian authorities have also claimed there are fears that there could be an attack on the train. On the matter of the cow slaughter controversy Pakistan’s Foreign Office has said that attacks on Muslims over cow slaughter are beyond comprehension; the FO is also reportedly looking into reports that Pakistani passengers were offloaded from the Samjhota Express at Wagah. India’s progressive intellectuals and activists, as well as parts of its entertainment industry have protested this new face of India. The country’s claim to be a secular state is being challenged daily by the Modi government. The real test now is whether any action is taken by Prime Minister Modi against members of his party who attacked the Muslim legislator in Kashmir. Till then, Modi will stand accused of turning a blind eye as secular India is destroyed by religious fanaticism.
pk.shafaqna.com
