After reading the article, “Beleaguered community -- being a Muslim in new India” by Zia Us Salam in The Hindu on 30th June and listening to the interview of Karan Thapar with Zia in The Wire, one gets a vivid picture of the horrible situation to which the Muslims in India are pushed.

Ever since the BJP came to power under the leadership of Narendra Modi, there have been concerted efforts to target the minorities and push them to the margins and thereby make them invisible. In tune with the policy of the Sangh Parivar, “Fist Muslims, later Christians” (pehale kasai, bad me isaai), the main target has been the Muslim community since 2014.

Zia Us Salam, in his article and in his interview, gives a heart-wrenching account of the pathetic situation of Muslims of India. “Muslims have to wake up to a daily avalanche of hate on social media, political circles, and in real life. To be a Muslim is to be voiceless in the new India. Almost all mainstream political parties refrain from using the word Muslim, often preferring the euphemism of alpsankhyak or the minorities. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fares worse,” he wrote.

The issues he has raised are not new, but he has presented them in such a way that any person with conscience is persuaded to reflect and ask questions to himself/herself on what is happening in India. Some of the facts with regard to making Muslims in India voiceless, helpless and invisible are the following:

Diminution in Muslim representation in all spheres of life: no Muslim in the Union Council of Ministers; no Muslim among the more than 400 BJP Parliamentarians and no Muslim was given ticket by the BJP in the recently held Karnataka Assembly elections and before that in UP, Bihar and Delhi.  

Muslims are branded as anti-nationals, terrorists and pro-Pakistanis only because of their religion and no empathy or emotional support from other communities when the Muslims are attacked physically and abused verbally.

All political parties are afraid of supporting any Muslim cause and even don’t have the guts to use the word ‘Muslim’ in public discourses.

To be a Muslim means not to have one’s voice and identity, as if 15% Indians do not exist.

Narendra Modi did not ask his ministerial and party colleagues to keep quiet when they indulged in abusing Muslims. Nor the Judiciary took up suo motu case when the Dharam Sansad in Haridwar called for Muslim genocide.

Inertia of the judiciary and the administration to take corrective measures when Muslims are attacked or abused is a sign of the neglect of Muslims.

When Zia once went to a bank to withdraw cash, the teller asked his colleague, “shall I give him money; he looks like a terrorist (isko paisa dum; athangawadi lagta hai)”.

Because of the fear of being lynched, thousands of Muslim families have left cattle rearing and cattle trade, their age-old occupation, and joined the army of daily wage labourers.

Thousands of Muslim women who have come to the cities to do domestic work adopt Hindu names in order to get entry to colonies and apartments. Many Muslim daily wage workers are doing the same.

Some right-wing organizations often call for an economic boycott of the Muslims.

A few days ago, there was news that some soldiers forced Muslim women in a mosque in Kashmir to say Jai Sree Ram.

Jai Sree Ram is used as a war cry against Muslims in the new India and not a salutation of Bhagwan Sree Ram.  

After the publication of the article by Zia Us Salam in The Hindu, many non-Muslims reached out to the author, expressing solidarity and support and belief in the Indian Constitutional values.  “They all believe what this government is doing to the Muslims is intolerable and unjustifiable. Therein lies hope for the idea of India and hope for the Muslims,” said Zia in the concluding part of the interview.  “I will die as an Indian and I will not allow any Muslim to migrate. I will not allow detractors to fulfil their dream of a Muslim- mukt Bharat. This is our land, our home and our country,” he asserted.

Hundreds of comments from those who watched the video of the interview are really consoling and give hope of a better future. Most of the comments are empathetic and supportive.

“I am a Hindu, and I have seen young Muslim colleagues, my juniors feeling awkward, scared to voice their opinion whenever there was politics discussed. I used to talk to them warmly and even criticize the Hindus...just to make them feel safe, but they stopped trusting me too. I feel so helpless”- (@umaprabhakar6435).

“One of the most heart touching interviews…. Sometimes I wonder how much our society, as Indians, is becoming regressive, shallow and shellfish”. @MrDhavalparakh

“This is beyond heartbreaking. I was basically enraged or saddened at every other line while reading his article in The Hindu yesterday morning. Shared bits of it with friends. I swear, I'll do everything in my capacity to maintain equality and fight back this horrible Islamophobia once I am an IAS officer. Hold on tight, our Muslim brothers and sisters. This prejudice and hatred are not going to last forever”. @banerjeehome5913

“I have been living in the US for 25 years and not a single day has I felt that I am living in a different country. All citizens of India irrespective of caste, creed or religion should have the same feeling in India. That is the country you should aspire for. The US is not perfect and there is racism in the USA but it does not affect me in my daily life. Hindus are just one percent here but still all our rights are protected. I am living fearlessly pursuing my dreams and ambitions in this country.”  @creativeperspectives2712

Christians are only 2.3% of the Indian population, but they are the second biggest religious minority after the Muslims and their institutional presence is perhaps stronger than that of Muslims. They too are on the firing lines of the Hindutva forces. What is happening in Manipur is a warning to the Christians in India of what is in store for them in a Hindu Rashtra. 

Those Christian leaders who are hobnobbing with the Hindutva communal forces have to learn from the experience of 2008 Kandhamal violence and the unabated violence on the Christian Kukis in Manipur since May 3. Major Amit Bansal in his article, “Two months Manipur violence: Was it a state sponsored act?” has narrated the sequence of events that led to the violence in such a way that one has the reason to believe that it is a state-sponsored violence.

The Christian leadership, especially the Catholic leadership, kept a studied silence and indifference without exercising its prophetic role, when genocide of Muslims took place in Gujarat in 2002; when a number of innocent Muslims were lynched by the cow vigilantes during the first term of the Modi regime; when the protests against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) were suppressed with an iron hand by the government; and when the three controversial farm laws were thrust upon the farmers despite strong resistance by the latter.  

Christian leadership cannot afford to be naïve and ignorant of the real aim of the Hindutva forces. What has been happening during the last nine years is the implementation of a well-planned and systematic strategy to transform India into a Hindutva Rashtra in which Muslims and Christians will be reduced to second class citizens even without citizenship. Their failure to discern the agenda behind creating enmity between Christians and Muslims, especially in Kerala, will be disastrous for the Christian communities in India. Swallowing the fake and poisonous terminologies like “Love Jihad” is either the result of their utter ignorance and prejudice or the desire to please those who are in the driving seat.  

All those who are enthusiastic to align with the Hindutva communal forces and remain silent when innocent people are lynched or killed or attacked physically and verbally, have to remember the words of Martin Niemoller of Germany.

“First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me”.

What is happening in India today is the unfolding of an ideology that perceives Muslims and Christians as internal enemies of the nation, an ideology that aims to keep Muslims and Christians as second-class citizens, an ideology that glorifies Hitler who massacred 6 million jews. A fitting response to this dangerous ideology is disseminating the core teachings of Jesus -- love, forgiveness and compassion -- and promoting the Gandhian ideals of truth and non-violence. In the words of Rahul Gandhi, “open shops of love in the market of hatred”. This is the time for Christians to join with all persecuted minorities and secular forces to protect secular democracy and the pluralist Constitution of India.