The situation in Haryana is worsening by the day as reports now reveal that diktats are now being issued against Muslims so that they are boycotted as members of the community and their entry into the villages is barred. Communal tensions have been brewing in multiple parts of the country for a while, but Haryana in particular has been at the center of this issue for the past few weeks. The results of the BJP project are now coming to the fore, making it an untenable situation that cannot be swept under the carpet anymore.
Over the past few weeks, lives have been lost and a lot of property has been damaged as a result of the communal violence that has gripped the state of Haryana. The state’s complicity is quite apparent, as now even the courts are asking questions over the recent demolitions tearing down the houses and businesses of mainly Muslim residents in the northern state. It must be pointed out that hundreds of homes, shops, and shanties have been demolished by the ruling BJP government in Nuh, Haryana, which is the state’s only Muslim-majority district.
These actions have led the court to ask whether the government-led demolitions were an act of ethnic cleansing, exclusively targeting the Muslim community in the region, and without following the procedure established by law or issuing any prior notices to the people owning the properties.
It bears mentioning that many rights groups have condemned the long history of BJP’s bulldozing of Muslim-owned properties including possible suspects and alleged political dissenters. These demolitions have been described as a common practice in the states governed by the ruling party. In fact, last year in January, the founder and director of Genocide Watch, told a United States congressional briefing that genocide of Muslims could take place in India.
Many are rightly pointing out that these are the indicators of an apartheid state. This was a long time coming given how the ruling party systematically exploited communal and extremist elements over the past decade, and these developments in Haryana are yet another manifestation of the Hindutva project.