Local Buddhists and right-wing Hindu leaders in Baru...

Local Buddhists and right-wing Hindu leaders in Baruapara, Maheshtala, just outside the Indian city of #Kolkata , have launched open protests against a #Muslim family simply for buying a house in the #Buddhist and #Hindu -majority locality. In a video, a minor #Hindutva leader declares that a Muslim purchasing land in a Buddhist-Hindu majority area has triggered “chaos” in the locality, and branded it “Land Jihad.” This is the same toxic label Hindutva groups and BJP supporters have been routinely slapping on any Muslim land or property purchase in non-Muslim areas in the north-Indian BJP-ruled states. Opposition to Muslims buying homes or shops in Hindu areas has been standard practice for nearly a decade, escalating in lockstep with the BJP’s rise across the Hindi belt. In virtually every BJP-ruled state, Hindutva outfits have threatened, harassed, and forced Muslim buyers to abandon their properties. In quite a few instances in the BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, Hindu right-wing groups staged sit-ins outside the main entrances of flats owned by Muslim families in Hindu-dominated housing societies. They engaged in continuous kirtans or recitations of the Hanuman Chalisa, apparently to harass and intimidate the Muslim residents. In most cases, the Muslim families were eventually forced to leave their homes and properties. Now, five months after the BJP came to power in West Bengal, the same playbook is being rolled out. The state’s Muslims are being subjected to the same systematic communal oppression long inflicted on their co-religionists in north India. Before the elections, Suvendu Adhikari openly declared that a BJP government—if it came to power— would work exclusively for Hindus and that “secularism” would cease to exist. That threat is now a policy in practice I West Bengal. Muslims in Kolkata are being bluntly told by housing societies, agents, and brokers that they will not be allowed to buy or rent apartments, houses and lands in many residential complexes and prime localities—purely because of their faith. What was once occasional discrimination has become open, statewide exclusion. With Suvendu Adhikari in power, West Bengal has turned into open season for Hindutva forces. They operate with total impunity. Bangladeshi Hindutva voices who posture as defenders of Hindus know full well the discrimination Bengali Muslims face across the border under BJP rule in West Bengal. They also know that, despite being a religious minority, Hindus in Bangladesh do not face the same degree of state-backed communal repression. Yet these same voices remain completely silent. Not one statement. Not one word of condemnation against the communal repression of Muslims in West Bengal or India. Buddhists in Bangladesh should take particular note: their co-religionists in Maheshtala are actively joining Hindutva forces to block a Muslim family from buying a home in their neighbourhood—solely on the basis of religion. #USCIRF Video

Local Buddhists and right-wing Hindu leaders in Baruapara, Maheshtala, just outside the Indian city of , have launched open protests against a family simply for buying a house in the #

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