Former BJP Leader Threatens to Replace All Mosque with Temples
"Wherever the Mughals have demolished temples and constructed mosques, in all those places we will destroy all the mosques and temples that will come up," India Today quoted Former Karnataka minister KS Eshwarappa as saying on Sunday.
This is not the first time the politician has made anti-Muslim remarks, back in April when he was giving a speech, he described the Muslim call to prayer (adhan) as a “headache.”
India has witnessed a surge of Islamophobia and Hindu nationalism since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014.
The BJP and its allies have pursued a hardline Hindutva agenda, which seeks to assert Hindu supremacy and marginalize minorities, especially Muslims.
They have passed laws that restrict interfaith marriages and conversions, banned the slaughter and consumption of cows, which are sacred to Hindus, and revoked the autonomy of Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority region.
They have also promoted a revisionist history that glorifies Hindu rulers and erases Muslim contributions to India's culture and civilization.
The BJP's policies have emboldened Hindu vigilantes, who have attacked and killed Muslims over allegations of cow slaughter, love jihad (a conspiracy theory that accuses Muslim men of luring Hindu women into marriage and conversion), or blasphemy.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, at least 44 people were killed by Hindu mobs between May 2015 and December 2018. Most of them were Muslims accused of storing beef or transporting cows for slaughter.
The report also documented cases of Muslims being lynched for wearing traditional clothes, sporting beards, or praying in public.
The BJP has often downplayed or justified such attacks while accusing its critics of being anti-national or pro-Pakistan.
Many analysts say that Modi's government is using Islamophobia as a political tool to polarize the Hindu majority and consolidate its support base. They warn that this strategy is undermining India's secular democracy and its image as a tolerant and diverse nation.
Source: Agencies
