DESPARDES — After violent riots in New Delhi in February, many Muslims lost their homes. This happened after Modi-led government suddenly stripped nearly 2M people of their citizenship.
And now the government has ordered national lockdown. So they don’t necessarily have anywhere to go amid the coronavirus crisis.
Emmy Awards and a Gracie Award winner Isobel Yeung recently traveled to India to see how a newly-enacted law has signaled to India’s 200M Muslims that they are the true target.
Yeung interviewed senior Indian lawmaker and a top leader of the ruling BJP party dr. Subramanian Swamy who told her on camera, “Muslims are not equal as they don’t belong to the same category of equals”.
India’s eastern and western neighbors (Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively) are Muslim-majority nations carved out during the partitioning of India in 1947 as the British colonial empire withdrew from the subcontinent.
Over five decades since independence, there has been more than 50 communal riots in world’s largest democracy with more than 1.3bln population — the latest riot took place in its capital Delhi amid countrywide protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act. Critics say the Act is aimed at removing the sheen off secularism and making India a Hindutva nation.
Special Assistant to the Pakistani PM for Overseas Pakistanis Sayed Z Bukhari also shared the controversial clip on Twitter with “Clearly Modi’s India has no humanity left”.
A senior defense official in Pakistan said, “the man (Indian lawmaker Swamy) should be praised for being candid about Hindutva views on Muslims. This should clear any doubts , if there were any, where (the) future of Indian Muslims (is) heading”.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he’s not authorized to make any comments officially.
