Comments on Sameer Yasir's April 22 article India is Scapegoating Muslims

from: thebahuofbengal@gmail.com

to: jonathan.tepperman@foreignpolicy.com, reply@foreignpolicy.com

cc: yasirshi@gmail.com

date: Apr 22, 2020, 8:09 PM

subject: Comments on Sameer Yasir's April 22 article India is Scapegoating Muslims Re:

Sameer Yasir

mailed-by:gmail.com

I would like to comment on the anti-Hindu bias in Sameer Yasir’s article India Is Scapegoating Muslims for the Spread of the Coronavirus https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/22/india-muslims-coronavirus-scapegoat-modi-hindu-nationalism/. Mr. Yasir is copied on this message.

My comments are in bullet form (and many are italicized) so that I could send them in a timely manner.

Mr. Yasir’s report contained a lot of loaded words:

• "Hindu nationalist"
• "Amit Malviya, who heads the BJP’s information technology cell and serves as its chief propagandist.” It would have been sufficient to say “Amit Malviya, who heads the BJP’s information technology cell.” Let your readers decide if Amit Malviya is a propagandist.
• “India’s television news channels, already notorious for spreading hatred against Muslims, were quick to attack” As far as I know, the only TV reporter to call out the gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz is Arnab Goswami.
• "Some warn the endgame may be even worse, with threats that amount to incitement to genocide."
• Mr. Yasir wrote, “Many Muslims fear that the democratic India embraced by their ancestors in 1947 is on the path to becoming a majoritarian Hindu nation.”

I support making Jammu and Kashmir Union Territories. Moreover, the Government of India spun off Ladakh from Jammu & Kashmir, as Ladakh has a culture of its own. Revoking J&K’s semi-autonomous status might allow the Hindus whom Muslims ethnically cleansed 30 years to return to their homes.

Mr. Yasir wrote, “In India’s troubled northeastern region of Assam, Modi last year introduced a controversial National Register of Citizens to identify Indian nationals among so-called foreigners from neighboring Bangladesh. The register has put some 1.9 million citizens—the majority of them Muslims who have lived there for generations but lack documentation—at the risk of becoming stateless.”

One of the successes of the BJP government was to conclude a peace treaty with Bodo guerillas in Assam.

Rather, the point of the NRC is to identify Bangladeshi infiltrators – a recent phenomenon. It is wrong to say that the majority of Muslims have lived in Assam for generations.

Mr. Yasir made a comment about “deadly anti-Muslim violence in Delhi”.

PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have disillusioned many of their supporters by not taking decisive action at Shaheen Bagh, Jamia Millia Islamia, and the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Nizamuddin Markaz. I will not be surprised if the home countries to which the Tablighi Jamaat missionaries return are harsher on them than India.

Mr. Yasir wrote, “Many Muslims see the latest scapegoating as part of a larger ploy by Hindu nationalists to demonize them and ultimately deny them even the basic rights guaranteed to all citizens of India under the constitution, regardless of religion.”

While the Constitution of India explicitly protects minority institutions from government seizure, it does not extend that protection to Hindu institutions. Therefore, it is wrong to say that the Constitution of India guarantees basic rights, regardless of religion.

Mr. Yasir wrote, “The Star of Mysore ran an editorial (since removed) referring to Muslims with the following advice: “An ideal solution to the problem created by bad apples is to get rid of them.”

I would like to read The Star of Mysore’s editorial for context so that I can decide. Maybe the writer was not intimating genocide.

All in all, Mr. Yasir’s article was emotional and not the dispassionate reporting that I would expect from a prestigious journal like Foreign Policy.

Yours sincerely,