Eurasia Review
17 November 2015
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- India’s Hate Speech Pandemic: Communal Intolerance and Sectarian Violence – Analysis
India’s Hate Speech Pandemic: Communal Intolerance and Sectarian Violence – Analysis
There is uproar in India over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s studied silence on the seemingly increasing communal intolerance in the country. It is more important to focus on why these acts are being committed and how the government tackles the sectarian violence.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s studied silence on recent incidents of sectarian violence and anti-Muslim hate speech have been seen as giving the green light to right-wing Hindu extremists to wreak havoc among minority communities.
Although, the prime minister is not expected to respond to every incident, the grisly lynching of a person or brutal rape of a nun in a church are not just a “small incident”, contrary to what some of his party members may claim. Moreover, his lack of action against his own ministers and party members, who further stoke communal tensions, sends the wrong message to the Indian public and the world.
… Akanksha Narain is a Research Analyst with the Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme, a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
SRP / Online
