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'We've Become a Muslim-hating Country, Face an Existential Crisis; I Despair for India, See No Hope'

"We've become a Muslim-hating country and face an existential crisis; I despair for my country, I don't see any ray of hope": Avay Shukla, one of India's most popular bloggers, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. .......................................... In an interview to discuss the sort of campaign waged by the BJP in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, where conscious and deliberate attempts were made in speeches and advertisements to demonize and vilify the Muslim community, one of the country’s best known bloggers and a widely read author of short stories, Avay Shukla, has said “We’ve become a Muslim-hating country” and India faces “an existential crisis”. Mr. Shukla says: “We are creating the grounds for an explosion”. He adds: “I despair for my children, I despair for my country, I don’t see any ray of hope”. In a 30-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Avay Shukla, a former senior IAS officer, said the Prime Minister’s speeches, littered with the phrase ek hai toh safe hai, and Yogi Adityanath’s speeches, littered with the phrase batenge toh katenge, were “not dog whistles but commands to take action along these lines”. Mr. Shukla said the Home Minister’s speeches in Jharkhand, where he spoke about infiltrators marrying tribal women as their second and third wives to take over their property and land, were, in fact, suggesting that Muslims from other parts of India who had gone to Jharkhand for work are infiltrators and this was an attempt to portray them as villains and monsters. Mr Shukla also spoke about a BJP ad issued in Jharkhand, which the Election Commission has ordered the Party to take down, which shows scores of Muslims storming a Hindu home and literally taking it over. He said the ad filled him with “disgust and anger”. He said this was “not (just) demonizing Muslims any more but it’s a call for action against them.” Mr. Shukla said the Election Commission’s silence in all these matters – other than asking the BJP to take down the ad – is “a serious dereliction of duty and non-adherence to the Commission’s constitutional compulsions”. He said he was “disgusted” by the Election Commission’s behaviour and not just disillusioned. He said the Election Commission had become “a blot on our governance” and also “a blot on our service”. He was here referring to the fact the Election Commissioners are former IAS officers. Mr. Shukla was also sharply critical of the media and press, which has failed to comment on and criticize BJP speeches and failed to point out that the Home Minister’s claim that infiltrators from Bangladesh have come to Jharkhand clearly means the government has failed to do its job of stopping them. The media even failed to point out the fact that this was an own-goal. Mr. Shukla blamed the middle and the upper classes for spreading Muslim hatred. As Tavleen Singh writes in a recent column: “It has become normal for educated Indians to sit in their drawing rooms and talk openly about how they hate Muslims”. I will stop there. There’s a lot in this interview that I will leave you to see when you watch the interview yourself. Mr. Shukla is pointing at some deep dark truths about the sort of country we’ve become, which may be difficult for many to accept and even unpalatable for others. But they are the truths that need to be heard and accepted. It’s hard to continue to deny them. Join The Wire's Youtube Membership and get exclusive content, member-only emojis, live interaction with The Wire's founders, editors and reporters and much more. Memberships to The Wire Crew start at Rs 89/month.    / @thewirenews