IT is for the first time in the history of post-Independent India that the prime minister has been compelled to defend himself publicly that he is fully committed to the constitutional values of secularism. This affirmation by media, unfortunately for the whole country, has been made in American magazine Time, to which he gave an interview published on May 7 to 8, 2015. What is the reason for a prime minister of a sovereign democratic republic to defend his domestic policy before a foreign audience? A few facts may be mentioned to contextualise the real significance of Narendra Modi’s interview to the Time magazine. First, pro-imperialist Modi not only proclaimed America as “natural ally” of India, but he has also taken great credit for arranging Barack Obama’s visit on the Republic Day this year. However, this achievement of Modi was short lived because Obama just before his return asked Modi to provide full security and protection to religious minorities like Christians and Muslims. Modi was really stung because of such a public statement by the US president. Second, the annual report of the United States committee on International Religious Freedom of 2015 castigated the Modi government on minority policies like ‘Ghar Wapsi’ or on Christian Missionaries, and observed that “Muslim communities are facing undue security and arbitrary arrests and detentions…” Third, if the tenure of Modi’s conduct as prime minister for one year is only seen in the larger context that Modi as chief minister of Gujarat from post-Godhra riots of 2002 to May 26, 2014 had been declared a ‘persona non-grata’ by the United States and European Union countries and was denied “visa” to visit these countries for his alleged role in post-Godhra anti-Muslim riots in which about 2,000 innocents were killed and about 3,00,000 Muslims had to seek protection in the “refugee camps” in Ahmedabad. Modi, personally as chief minister, was an “unwanted” individual and his entry to the US and Europe was banned. Fourth, in this age of information explosion, Modi as chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, had created a situation where every Muslim was a suspect in spite of the fact that his own minister was punished by the court for actively promoting inter-religious hostility and leading to riots against Muslims, and terrorist attack against Akshardham temple in Ahmedabad was immediately linked to Muslims and the arrested Muslims were all acquitted after 12 years of imprisonment because the court found them “innocent”. It was publicly claimed by all governments that “terrorists” have no religion, the fact of the matter is every terrorist attacks including the one on Samjhauta Express train from Delhi to Pakistan has been attributed to Muslims while fanatic Hindus trained by extremist Hindu organisations have been found “guilty” of indulging in terrorist activities. The banned Student Islamic Movement of India is suspected and its associates are arrested as a matter of routine after every serious violent incident. The spread of the ideology of Hindutva in the country has led to a situation where the Hindu opportunists and police force point their fingers against Muslims as culprits. This is the domestic content well known to the international community and it led Modi to observe in his interview to American Time magazine that “my government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion. So there is no place for imaginary apprehensions with regard to the rights of minorities in India”. This public statement of Modi that, “apprehensions are imaginary” deserve to be completely exposed so that he cannot get away with his false claims to “defend the secular Constitution of India”. What is the real story of religious minorities in India under the ongoing Hinduisation of society, polity and culture? It deserves to be clearly emphasised here that the determined manner in which BJP governments at the Centre and in some states are pursuing the Hindu ideological agenda has created a sense of fear, insecurity and anxiety among religious minorities like Muslims and Christians who are feeling threatened by the actions and policy statements of the BJP as all public policies are loaded against religious and cultural identities and beliefs of the minorities. The BJP and the affiliates of RSS have developed a feeling that they occupy the centre state of Indian society, polity and culture and this self-confidence has been revealed by public assertion of RSS supreme Mohan Bhagwat on March 14, 2015 while addressing Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha that “we are all Hindus…all those born in India are Hindus. Whether they accept it or not they are culturally, nationally and DNA-wise the same”. Elaborating the statement of RSS chief at the same meeting, RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosahable observed, “Who do you call minorities? We don’t consider anybody to be a minority. There should be no minority because in the country there is no minority.” BJP and RSS with all its affiliates are working with patronage of governments led by Narendra Modi at the Centre and all the chief ministers of major states to push forward the agenda of Hindutva, defined by V D Savarkar. Ram Madhav, BJP general secretary, referred to the role played by RSS in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and said on April 12 that “the RSS chief categorically told our cadre that we are working because of historic reason that India needed a major political transformation”, and this goal was achieved when BJP for the first time formed its own government at the Centre on May 26, 2014 on the basis of its own majority of 282 out of 543 members of the Lok Sabha. A few silent facts may be mentioned here to substantiate the argument that every government of the BJP under the supervision of the RSS chief pursued its ideological agenda which has sent a clear message to all major religious minorities that you are a “second-class-citizen” in Hindu India. First, it is targeting Muslim and Christian communities and their cultural and educational institutions by launching a movement by the Sangh Parivar for “re-conversion” or “Ghar Wapasi” of the minority groups to Hinduism. The issue of “religious conversion”, a very sensitive issue, became an agenda of public discourse when Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu and other tall leaders of BJP asked not only for a public debate but also wished to create national consensus for the need for a law against “conversion”. Why has the BJP in government suddenly felt the need for a national debate in 2014-15 and the need for a national law of “religious conversions”? The answer is given by Mohan Bhagwat “make India a Hindu Rasthra”. Will religious minorities feel secure at the height of this campaign by governments owing loyalty to one majority religion only? Second, BJP governments and affiliates of the Hindu Sangh Parivar have once again made anti-cow slaughter law a public issue because of the propaganda that holy cow of Hindus is eaten by Muslims who are non-Hindu. It is not surprising that only Muslims have been arrested for violating anti-cow slaughter laws by the state governments of the BJP. Third, if Yogi Adityanath of the BJP, as MP, has been openly indulging in hate campaigns against Muslim community, another MP Sakshi Maharaj on April 14, 2015 demanded that Muslims compulsorily undergo “vasectomy” to control galloping Muslim population and enforce “two-child norm” for Muslims. Fourth, while every religious community violence, known as Hindu-Muslim riot, has made minorities feel insecure, it is for the first time that the BJP nominated candidates for 2014 Lok Sabha who were “accused of instigating anti-Muslim riots in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh”. The message is direct and unambiguous that Hindus indulging in violence against Muslims will be rewarded by the BJP or as in the case of massacre of Hashimpura, where 42-45 Muslims were massacred by UPPAC personnel on May 22, 1987, the minorities will have to wait for justice as in the judgment delivered on March 21, 2015 the judge observed with anguish that the “lives of innocent men have been taken by the state agency” and the 19 accused UPPAC personnel had to be “acquitted” because “one cannot be convicted on the basis of flimsy investigation which has gaps and holes”. Can minorities have faith in the majesty of the rule of law when the state agencies are themselves communalised and the home minister of India did not utter a single word on such massacre of Muslims at the hands of “state agency”. The government yet has not filed an appeal against acquittal. The telling example of this “helplessness” by religious minorities has been provided specifically by Gujarat when after the communal riots of Ahmedabad and other areas from February 28 to April 2002 where the victim Muslim community sought protection by living in Muslim localities only. The growing “ghettoisation” of Muslims who prefer to live only in Muslim localities of their own is creating a wall of separation and suspicion between majority Hindus and minority Muslims. The explanation for this development is that Muslims do not feel protected by the state functionaries while in distress and they find collective security by living only in Muslim brotherhood. It is not without reason that when prime minister or state home ministers condemn actions and statements of BJP MPs or Praveen Togadia, Muslims do not take it seriously because of their own existential daily experiences, the leaders of Hindu state do not inspire confidence among the Muslims. Christian minorities, Christian schools and Christian churches are targeted by emboldened Hindu organisations of the RSS. It is difficult for the besieged community to accept that the BJP government can act as their “protector”. The upshot of the above description is that, Hindu-Muslim divide has become a reality. And if corrective step are not taken at the highest governmental and administrative levels, Indians will be living in a perpetual state of conflict and violence. (END)