Analyze. India celebrates 75 years of independence on 15 August. Never before has this country been so decorated. Orange-white-green flags fly everywhere in Delhi, on the roofs of buildings, on the countless rickshaws (tricycles) that traverse the Indian capital. Small street vendors have stockpiled them in hopes of selling them to motorists. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, has urged Indians to raise tricolor banners at home and on social networks.

Mr Modi gave his traditional speech from the fort of Red Fort, the majestic palace of the Mughal emperor, as he had done, in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first head of government of independent India who presided over the fate of the under-continental for nearly seventeen years, longevity has never been matched. But celebration 75^e The anniversary has left a bitter taste for all those who defend Republican values.

The subcontinent daily departs from the legacy of its founders by denying the basic principles enshrined in the preamble to the Constitution, equality, secularism and democracy.

Weakened democracy

India’s Mr. Modi is no longer trying to defend secularism – India’s version of secularism, which advocates the cohabitation of religions in the public sphere – to bring in Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, parsis, Buddhists, components of the Indian mosaic. It aims to establish the dominance of the Hindu majority, in the name of hindutva, a supremacist ideology. Attacks and insults against religious minorities, especially Muslims, are on the rise. The latter represent 14.2% of the population, or about 200 million people, whose ancestors had made the choice, at the time of partition in 1947, not to join Pakistan, believing in the idea of ​​living in peace in their country. , India. Seventy-five years after independence, that promise reeks of betrayal.

The current regime has pushed society apart so that the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Prime Minister’s party, no longer hold back. Recently, a former MP from Rajasthan, Gyan Dev Ahuja, was able to boast in a video that his followers executed five Muslims in the name of cow protection. The next day, a member of the Telangana Assembly, Raja Singh, made outrageous remarks about the Prophet Muhammad when he attacked Munawar Faruqui, a popular Muslim comedian who was harassed by Hindu nationalists. Shortly before, the BJP’s national spokesman, Nupur Sharma, himself had created a diplomatic incident by stigmatizing the Prophet’s relationship with his young wife Aisha.

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