Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, in his historic Independence Day speech, “A Tryst with Destiny”, told the members of the Constituent Assembly, “The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity”. Referring to the dream of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru said, “The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over”.

After 76 years of India’s efforts to wipe out the agonies of people by wiping out poverty, illiteracy, social inequality, injustice and economic underdevelopment, what is the condition of the people who have been at the bottom of the socio-economic and political pyramid today? There is no gainsaying that India has made great strides in reducing poverty, illiteracy and social and economic inequalities during the last 76 years. But the frightening developments of the last nine years appear to be taking India back to the pre-independent feudalistic mindset of building a hierarchical, caste-based, exclusive, patriarchal and majoritarian nation.

The latest developments are clear indicators of the regression that has been taking place since 2014. Blatant and discriminatory policies and actions on the part of the BJP governments at the centre and the states to reduce Muslims and Christians into second class citizens or even non-citizens, increasing crimes and atrocities on the Dalits and Tribals and skyrocketing economic inequality are evidences of the backslide of India as a “sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic”.

The Prime Minister refused to speak in the Parliament on the brutal violence and communal riots that have been taking place in Manipur for more than three months till the non-confidence motion was taken up for discussion in the Lok Sabha. Despite having more than enough evidence to prove that the Biren Singh government in Manipur not only utterly failed to stop the riots but also was complicit in the violence, no action was taken against his government. On the contrary, the PM and the BJP tried to water down the gravity of the violence and mayhem by exaggerating violence on women in the opposition-ruled states.

Despite having facts and data to prove what is happening in Manipur is a cleansing of Kuki Christians, the narrative created and propagated by the BJP and the godi media is that it is a conflict between two communities: Meiteis and Kukis. Even the opposition parties are afraid of telling the truth that it is an ethnic as well as a religion-based violence. “To be honest, what is being portrayed as ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki tribes inhabiting the hills, is in reality nothing but the organized targeting of Christians straight out of the Hindu Right’s playbook. Kukis who constitute 18% of the population are at the receiving end of the state-backed violence perpetrated by Meiteis and their militias”, wrote S N M Abdi in the Free Press on 8^th August 2023.

As per the data given by Abdi in his article, out of the 181 deaths 113 or two-thirds are Kuki Christians. The religious nature of the violence is evident from deliberate targeting of churches and chapels, belonging to both Kukis and Meiteis. More than 250 churches and chapels have been vandalized and burned reportedly by the Meitei mobs. The European Parliament adopted a resolution that urged the Indian government to protect Christians in Manipur. Fiona Bruce, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s special envoy for freedom of religion, described the violence in Manipur as “pre-meditated attacks with religion as key factor”.

Ever since the BJP came to power in 2014 at the Centre, Muslims have been targeted by various strategies: 1) a series of attacks by cow vigilantes; 2) hate speeches by the BJP leaders and hate messages on the social media by the right wing organizations; 3) fomenting communal riots in different parts of India especially on the occasion of festivals like Ramnavami; 4) call for genocide by the dharam sansads; 5) boycott of Muslims traders and service providers; 6) promoting biased movies like Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story; 7) bulldozer justice; 8) passing discriminatory laws like Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and anti-conversion laws; and 9) abrogation of article 370 and bifurcation of the only Muslim majority state, Jammu and Kashmir, into two Union Territories.

The Muslims in India are made to feel helpless and insecure through hate speeches, targeted attacks and triggering communal rites. The latest in a series of communal riots is the violence erupted in Nuh, the only Muslim majority district in Haryana. Rajdeep Sardesai of India Today visited the violence-hit area and interviewed a cross-section of people to know the truth behind the riots. Almost all people whom he met said that negligence of the administration was the main cause of the riot taking place.

Many people had alerted the district administration about the possible violence during the Brij Mandal Jal Abhishek Yatra taken out by the Bajrang Dal and the VHP in the backdrop of a provocative video of Monu Manesar announcing his intention to participate in the Yatra. He has been famous for his hate speeches and involvement in cow vigilantism, and he has criminal cases filed against him. The challenge thrown by Monu Manesar and the organizers of the Yatra provoked Muslim young men to respond to any violence from the other side. Local people also said that many outsiders were involved in the riots.

The administration failed to take adequate precautions. The threatening posts were not taken down from the internet, neither were potential troublemakers placed into preventative custody. Similarly, sufficient police force was not deployed to prevent any kind of flare up. Rao Inderjit Singh, Gurugram MP and Union Minister of State (Independent charge), while speaking on the violence in Nuh, said that it was not right for the yatris to be carrying swords and sticks. “Who gave them weapons for the procession? Who goes to a procession carrying swords or sticks? This is wrong. A provocation took place from this side too. I am not saying there was no provocation from the other side,” Singh said.

After the violence subsided, the action on the part of the Haryana government was partisan by arresting mostly Muslims and bulldozing houses and shops belonging to the Muslim community. Many people who lost their houses or shops told a reporter of The Wire that the notices were issued to them on the day of demolition, but they were backdated as 30^th June 2023. The same treachery was used by the Yogi Adityanath’s government in UP. According to The Wire correspondent, 750 structures were demolished before the Punjab and Haryana High Court halted the demolition.

As per the NDTV report, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stopped the demolition drive that was going on for four days. The court, crucially, asked if the drive was an “exercise of ethnic cleansing” by the state. “Apparently, without any demolition orders and notices, the law-and-order problem is being used as a ruse to bring down buildings without following the procedure established by law,” Hindustan Times quoted the bench of Justices Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia and Harpreet Kaur Jeewan as having said.

It is very unfortunate that the Supreme Court of India did not take up suo-motu the “bulldozer justice” and banned it. Bulldozer justice is illegal, unconstitutional and above all inhuman because houses, shops and other establishments of people are demolished without following the due process. In most of the cases, the houses and other establishments bulldozed belong to one particular community. By doing this, the state becomes a transgressor of law and a leviathan.

This draconian and anti-people practice was started by one of the Hindutva icons, Yogi Adityanath. It was blindly imitated by other BJP Chief Ministers to prove their loyalty to the Hindutva ideology and to be in the good books of their boss. On the bulldozing of houses and shops in the aftermath of Ram Navami procession in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, the newspapers reported, “The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh who was known as “mama” becomes “bulldozer baba”.

What is the condition of the Dalits and Tribals in India today? The framers of the Indian Constitution had provided reservation in terms of political participation, higher education and jobs to improve their socio-economic conditions. The crucial question today is despite reservations why do they continue to be at the bottom of the socio-economic and political pyramid? Although the BJP has succeeded to attract the votes of a sizable section of the Dalits and Tribals, they have been at the receiving end with regard to atrocities committed on them. In Madhya Pradesh, a high caste man who is said to be a supporter of a BJP MLA had the audacity to urinate on the face of a Kol tribal.

According to the report of government’s own agency, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), atrocities or crimes against Scheduled Castes (SCs) have increased by 1.2% in 2021 with Uttar Pradesh reporting the highest number of cases of atrocities against SCs accounting for 25.82% followed by Rajasthan with 14.7% and Madhya Pradesh with 14.1% during 2021. Further, the report reveals that atrocities against Scheduled Tribes (ST) have increased by 6.4% in 2021 with Madhya Pradesh reporting the highest number of cases accounting for 29.8% followed by Rajasthan with 24% and Odisha with 7.6% in 2021. Dalits and tribals continue to be at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid, having the lowest literacy rate and lowest per capita income and expenditure.

One of the goals of the freedom movement was to create an equitable society. “Equality of status and opportunity” is one of the goals of India as per the preamble of the Indian Constitution. According to Oxfam India’s Report 2023, just 5 percent of Indians own more than 60 percent of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 50 percent of the population possess only 3 percent of the wealth. The report also says that between 2012 and 2021, 40 percent of the wealth created in India went to just 1 percent of the population and only a mere 3 percent of the wealth went to the bottom 50 percent, and the total number of billionaires in India increased from 102 in 2020 to 166 billionaires in 2022.

India ranked 107 out of 121 countries on the Global Hunger Index of 2022 in which it fares worse than all countries in South Asia barring Afghanistan. The pro-rich economic policies of the BJP government and the neglect of quality education and health care for the common people are the main reasons for the skyrocketing inequality between the rich and the poor. Rise in income tax exemption limit, rise in indirect taxes and privatization of the public services and enterprises are some of these policies.

Instead of wiping out the tears of people, especially of the minorities, Dalits, Tribals and the other poor sections of India, what is happening today is just the opposite. Those who are entrusted with the responsibility of wiping out the tears of people are becoming inhuman and misuse all institutions to target certain sections of society so that they always live in tears. When hatred, exclusion and revenge become the foundations of a government’s policies, the outcome is nothing but inhumanity as found in Manipur, Nuh and other places. Let the 76^th Independence Day celebration give the harassed and persecuted people of India hope in the midst of fear, gloom, violence and helplessness.