Founder of Genocide Watch, Gregory Stanton, predicted an impending genocide of Muslims in India. In a United States congressional briefing, Stanton claimed that early signs of the genocide of the Muslim community had been sighted in the Indian state of Assam and the territory of Kashmir, citing Genocide Watch report, Al Jazeera reported.
He said genocide was a process rather than an event, and the prediction was drawn out of the policies followed by the Narendra Modi government in India. He cited the implementation of abrogation of Kashmir's special status and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), excluding Muslim minorities, both in 2019 as an example.
Stanton said that Hindutva ideology is against the history and the constitution of India, and Modi is an extremist who has taken over the government in India.
Bengaluru based rights activist Aakar Patel told Al Jazeera that Stanton's prediction should be taken seriously. The history of India's civic violence shows that either the state triggers violence against Muslims or chooses not to act when violence happens. A former information commissioner and educationist in New Delhi, MM Ansari, said that the fears are genuine.
For Al Jazeera OpEd, activist Apoorvanand wrote that under the BJP's regime, India became one of the most dangerous countries for Muslims and Christians in the world. Laws were being passed in the country criminalising the communities' religious practices, food habits, business etc., and they are being persecuted physically, psychologically and economically, he wrote.
However, BJP spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam rejected the Genocide Watch report, saying it is far from reality. He said that there were incidents of violence, but it is not just between Muslims and Hindus. It is happening among Hindus too, and there are conflicts due to issues like land disputes.
Meanwhile, The Genocide Watch also predicted genocide on Rohingya's Myanmar. Myanmar had declared them non-citizens initially and expelled them through violence.
Gregory Stanton was a former lecturer in genocide studies and prevention at George Mason University in Virginia. He, who launched the NGO Genocide Watch in 1999 to predict, and seek accountability against genocide, is said to have predicted the 1994 Tutsi massacre in Rwanda. Genocide Watch is said to have warned India about the 2002 Gujarat massacre, which took more than 1,000 Muslim lives.