Stop targetting Muslims - India's BJP gov't must take full responsibility

LETTER | We express our abhorrence on the politics of hate which has erupted in India.

The clashes between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law have now turned bloody with Muslims becoming the target.

While US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sat down for dinner, the city of Delhi witnessed bloodshed and anarchy.

The BJP government is now creating a situation for a religious pogrom.

The government’s contentious citizenship law is turning India into a dangerous country for Muslims and low cast minorities.

New Delhi has now become a battlefield for the worst communal violence the city has witnessed in decades.

Unfortunately, the Trump visit has obscured all news on the riots from the headlines, even on networks, sympathetic to the Modi government.

The recent electoral defeat in Delhi, a sluggish economy and some seriously negative press in the global media seem to be blacked out from the India media.

We are very concerned about India's politics of religious and ethnic cleansing.

Law and order collapsed. The police were paralysed and in complicit with the attackers.

The recent riot in Delhi was a riot directed towards Muslims. Muslims were essentially being terrorised in an organised and deliberate manner.

It is regretful that there was no intervention. As rampaging mobs began to identify and enter the homes of Muslims to drag them out, many Muslims made emergency calls to the police helpline.

We are very disturbed by the report of a young man clambering on top of the minaret of a mosque that had been burned by a mob while the police simply stood by.

Though more than 50 police officers were reported injured and a head constable killed, there was a clear institutional collapse.

Videos online showed officers hanging about as men wielding sticks and stones violently lunged down streets in attack mode.

In another video, a group of men were pleading for mercy, lying injured on the street, as police officers forced them to sing nationalist songs.

In the face of the rising number of fatalities, we are depressed by the deafening silence of the world community.

The Indian government's inaptitude on the nationwide protests, sit-ins and vigils in different parts India and New Delhi against the citizenship law, shows its complicity with the pro-CAA demonstrators chanting inflammatory speeches warning that the anti-CAA protesters must “clear the road or clear the country”.

They clearly termed Muslims as "wrong religion and wrong people", a brazen display of bigotry against Muslims citizens.

With the violence happening now, the ruling BJP is responsible for inciting to create communal riots.

To hide the anarchy, one pro-BJP supporter said: “We will hold our peace until Trump leaves."

However, it didn’t even last that long.

We are demanding UN and OIC intervene immediately before the situation closes to a complete implosion in India between BJP supporters and the Muslims.

We convey our condolences to all innocent victims and their families.

The violence must be halted immediately and an independent commission of enquiry must be set up to investigate the violence.

An emergency meeting must be called. Those responsible must be brought to justice. 

MOHD AZMI ABDUL HAMID is president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.