New Delhi: A leaked WhatsApp chat of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP – student wing of BJP), where student activists can be seen discussing the genocide of Muslims in the country. The chat is purported from the ABVP WhatsApp group of Delhi Technological University (DTU).
The group is named “ABVP DTU Freshers”, the screenshots of the chat and messages show a number of members of this group discussing genocide and mass conversion of the Muslims.
One of the members in the chat has suggested that exploding a bomb or “other accident” be plotted in a Muslim-dominated area to “exterminate most Muslims”, while another has suggested “buying or kidnapping” Muslim women to run “Bhagwa love jihad”.
Another person who was part of the conversation stated that a mass genocide or mass sterilization of Muslims should be plotted and carried out to give back to the Muslim community. The same user has also opined that Hindu Mahasabha or other right-wing Hindutva groups should start a course on “hot to marry Muslim girls and convert them to Hindu”.
Analysts believe that India is becoming a Hindu Rashtra where Muslims will be forced to live as second-class citizens and will be persecuted and murdered. The report titled “Is Genocide of Muslims underway in India?” concludes that “the process of genocide of Muslims is underway in India”.
An Assistant Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Ghazala Jamil said, “The idea was that if you were a Muslim, you were liable to be attacked anywhere, anytime.” Hate speech and misinformation spread online have also encouraged violence against Muslims.
Experts say anti-Muslim sentiments have heightened under the leadership of PM Modi and the ruling BJP, which has pursued a Hindu nationalist agenda. Author of 2017 book Mothering A Muslim, Nazia Erum, says that while prejudice towards Muslims has always been there in India but the “tone and intensity has changed, especially over the last five years”.
Islamophobia is occurring at both a top-down and bottom-up level, as Hindu nationalists across the country have been emboldened by the right-wing BJP led government which is marking India as a homeland exclusively for Hindus.
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