Professor Chinnaiah Jangam has written an article for The Wire entitled “After Kashmir, What Does the Hindu Right Have in Store for Dalits?” A short excerpt is below with the full article available online.
Electoral politics have become a litmus test for democracy in India. The scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A was the last nail in the coffin of constitutional morality and inclusive democracy. Since 2014, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there have been a series of calculated moves to consolidate the electoral arithmetic decisively in favour of Hindu majoritarian.
In his first term, Modi demonstrated that Muslims and Dalits were not safe under his watch as there was a spike in lynchings by cow vigilante groups across India. In maintaining a deadly silence, Modi enabled inaction from state institutions and emboldened the criminals to act with impunity.
The unprecedented electoral victory of 2019 established Modi and Amit Shah as unchallenged leaders within the party and the government. Shah is known to be a lethal operator and a shrewd strategist. Having been jailed on charges of murder, extortion and kidnapping, Shah’s elevation to the position of the home minister is truly ironical.
He is using all available legal avenues to render Muslims powerless, including the BJP’s brute majority to subvert and undermine constitutional provisions through parliamentary procedures. The scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A of the constitution has brought the project of Muslim persecution to complete fruition.