India's electoral politics and religious hatred

One Hindu eatery owner in a video on social media said he was forced by the administration to sack all his Muslim staff.

Adeeb added: "Muslims did not fall for the BJP's religious polarisation attempts during the election campaign. They judiciously voted for the opposition alliance due to which the BJP suffered.

"Now the BJP sees an opportunity to take revenge. Its slogan of 'sabka saath, sabka vikas' (all together, development for all) is all 'bakwas' [nonsense] and what we see instead is the continuation of old atrocities".

Muzaffarnagar was the scene of ugly communal violence in 2013, months before the 2014 general elections in which the BJP emerged victorious on the back of strong support in the Hindi heartland, including Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP did not live up to its hopes of a strong victory in this year's elections, or the opinion polls which predicted such an outcome. The actual vote was much closer.

A coalition of opposition groups led by the Congress Party – the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA – performed more strongly than expected.

There were a range of concerns that drew people to the INDIA bloc. They included youth unemployment, distress in the farming sector and anger over unfulfilled election promises from the BJP's previous two terms.

Untouchable constitutional reform

Concern over BJP reform plans fora Hindu-nationalist constitution grew during the campaign, particularly among India's Dalit community.

Dalits are the people at the bottom of the country's caste system and were formerly considered as the "untouchables". They did not back the proposed Hindutva constitutional changes.

And Muzaffarnagar diktat is likely to work against them too, with members of the upper castes likely to be reluctant to use Dalit businesses.

The controversy over the policy reached the Supreme Court. It issued an interim ruling in July to halt the implementation of the nameplate measure in Uttar Pradesh, although it said eateries would display information over the kind of food served.

Many members of parliament arriving for budget session debates criticised the nameplate order.

A lawmaker from the Samajwadi Party, Dimple Yadav, said: "The government is trying to hide its failures. If these people (BJP) talk about jobs, poverty, price rise, and how we can improve infrastructure in the country, it will be better".

Indian politicians from a range of parties have used provocative issues to boost their popularity. But the stakes for the BJP after its setback at the national polls are especially high in the looming regional elections.

The party has adopted a divisive narrative that Muslims voted against the BJP and they should be "taught a lesson", according to Nadeem Khan, secretary of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR).

"There is an alarming increase in communal violence, lynchings, and demolitions of Muslim homes," he said.

Such incidents have occurred in both BJP-ruled states such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Gujarat as well in the opposition-ruled states, including Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Telangana.

"Around 90% of such cases are politically motivated," Nadeem said recently at a press conference organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), a socio-religious organisation.

An APCR report highlighted various cases of violence and Islamophobia in June.

Serious violence 

Such crimes are often given cover by a unique factor in India, with a particular term: politics over the cow. The animal is considered to be holy by some Hindus, and allegations relating to a lack of respect for this idea can open the way for violence between the communities.

In the eastern state of Odisha, a mob broke into Muslim homes in the presence of police and searched the refrigerators for meat.

In the Mandla region of Madhya Pradesh state, there were reports of beef being recovered from inside Muslim homes and several houses were subsequently demolished.

In Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow, the authorities carried out home demolitions in the Muslim-majority Akbarnagar area, citing encroachment on state land.

According to local media reports, 1,800 "structures" including 1,169 homes, were demolished, leaving thousands of people without shelter or livelihoods. The residents said they had lived there for decades and due process was not followed as the bulldozers flattened their settled neighbourhood.

According to a Frontline magazine report this month, 150,000 homes have been razed in India in two years, leaving 738,000 people, mostly Muslims and marginalised sections of people, homeless. 

In Himachal Pradesh, Hindu extremists in their hundreds looted the shops of Muslim shopkeepers.

Muslims living in Delhi's Sangam Vihar filed a police complaint after alleged hate speech triggered tensions in the area following the discovery of cow remains in front of a temple.

And the problems have been serious enough to claim lives.

A Muslim youth was beaten to death by a mob in Aligarh city in Uttar Pradesh, leading to communal tensions. Three Muslim youths died in mob violence over transportation of cattle in Chhattisgarh state's Raipur.

Many people were injured when a mob attacked an Islamic religious school in Medak in the southern state of Telangana in a row over cow transportation.

The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, a leading Islamic organisation in India, wants the judiciary to take serious steps against this recurring communal violence and the emergence of a new pattern in which local authorities demolish Muslim homes using various excuses.

It has also called for the INDIA bloc to play its role of an effective opposition by raising these issues in parliament.