ISLAMABAD: Hate crimes and violence against Muslims have steadily increased in India since PM Modi assumed office and now International experts on genocidal violence warned that India is preparing for a “genocide” of 200 million Muslims in India, The muslim times reported on Thursday. It was puzzling that Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week spoke up for values enshrined in healthier democracies. Addressing the G7 leaders in Cornwall in a virtual appearance from Delhi on June 13, Mr. Modi described India as a natural ally of the group. He saw himself as the G7’s partner in “defending democracy, freedom of thought and liberty from a host of threats stemming from authoritarianism, terrorism, violent extremism and economic coercion”. As Modi spoke,it stated. The police in Uttar Pradesh under the watch of his handpicked chief minister were framing charges of conspiracy to stir communal violence against leading media figures critical of the BJP’s polarising politics. The RSS mouthpiece Organiser described the journalists as propagandists, but the RSF stood firm against the “absurd” charges. The RSF being a respected body to protect journalists – from recalcitrant states among other detractors – was clear that mischief was afoot. It urged the Uttar Pradesh police “to immediately withdraw the absurd charges, including criminal conspiracy”. The charges were framed against three journalists for tweeting about a video of an elderly Muslim man being beaten up by other men. A mob of Hindu extremist in Uttar Pradesh has lynched and brutally beaten an elderly Muslim man Abdul Samad. He was forced to chant Hindu war cry ‘Jai Sri Ram’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ Attackers cut off his beard and also showed him a video of other Muslims being attacked. In 2019, 49 prominent celebrities had written to PM Modi, expressing concern that `Jai Shri Ram` had become a war cry. Several incidents of Hindu extremist groups forcing minorities to chant, Jai Shree Ram have been reported in the recent past. The journalists, the RSF noted, were accused of conducting a “criminal conspiracy” although all they did was post tweets about a video showing an elderly man identified as a Muslim being badly beaten in Ghaziabad by several other men. The claim that the men shaved his beard and forced him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’, a Hindu chant that has become a rallying cry for religious extremists, is being contested. The RSS paper claimed the video was faked to help an opposition party. Before the three journalists named in the FIR tweeted about the video, which went viral on the evening of June 13, it was widely shared and commented on by India’s leading media outlets, including, according to RSF, The Times of India.
