Why the oppression of Muslims continues despite a weakened Modi

Even by India’s falling standards for extrajudicial, partisan government action against Muslims and Dalits, ignoring the violence of Hindu fundamentalists and tolerating hate speech by chief ministers from the ruling party, the days after Narendra Modi began his third term as prime minister have been ominous.

Electoral reverses were supposed to temper Modi 3.0, but a string of Islamophobic atrocities and comments have emanated from states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, indicating the continuing – even growing –impunity and confidence that Hindutva groups and the police enjoy.

While the virulence and violence against Muslims are not new, what is more blatant than ever in BJP states is the visible confidence of Hindu fundamentalists that the might of the law and the State will not be used against them.

Nowhere was this faith in police and government inaction clearer last week than in the gleeful faces of the young men on a Maharashtra train, confidently recording their attack on a 65-year-old man whom they accused of carrying beef; or in the young vigilantes in Haryana who murdered a young migrant because they suspected him for eating beef.

Most recent Muslim oppression is reported from BJP states, where chief ministers have, contrary to their constitutional oaths, deployed dog whistles against Muslims and...

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