FORGET THE FACTS AND BLAME MUSLIMS FOR THE FATAL TRAIN ACCIDENT IN INDIA.

Only in India is it possible to demonize Muslims by exploiting an accident involving a train.



Posts began to circulate on various social media platforms and WhatsApp groups shortly after the recent tragic train crash near Balasore station in the eastern state of Odisha, which resulted in the deaths of over 280 people.

 

The posts blamed Muslims for the accident.



As if the Friday angle wasn't enough, a lie about the station master being Muslim was concocted, making it appear as though the fact that three trains collided in Odisha on a Friday was merely a coincidence.

 

The image of a religious site close to the railway track where the accident occurred was shared on social media under the guise of being a mosque to give it a more ominous appearance, implying that there must be some connection between the mosque and the accident.



It was immediately exposed as a lie.

 

It was a Hindu temple and not a mosque.

 

But imagine if it had actually been a mosque – the baseless conspiracy theory would have received fresh wings.



Sadly, fact-checking only cements doubts created by fake news in minds that are already prejudiced against Muslims and are being told day and night that Muslims are conspiring against the nation.

 

These are minds trained to think that there is a need to keep an eye on Muslims and to subjugate them using laws and, if necessary, violence.



The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has long abandoned the pretense of acting as an independent investigative agency and is primarily used to target political opponents and probe cases along ideological lines laid out by the country's ruling masters, was commissioned by the railway minister to conduct an investigation into the accident.



In this case, handing the case over to the CBI circumvents the normal process in such situations, which is an investigation by the commissioner of safety.

 

The result: Instead of paying attention to flaws in safety measures, which could raise uncomfortable questions for the government, the investigation into the accident will now keep alive a criminal conspiracy theory.

 

It aligns with the rumours spread just after the accident.



Close on the heels of this accident, the chief minister of the state of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, made a speech to discourage the use of chemicals in farming.

 

Giving it an anti-Muslim twist, he vowed that “fertiliser jihad” would not be allowed.

 

He was using this occasion to target Bengali Muslims in his state, whose main occupation is farming.

 

Suggesting that they were spoiling the land by using chemicals, he was giving yet another justification for evicting Bengali Muslims and taking away their land, building on a campaign he has relentlessly pursued in recent years.



Sarma is recovering from the defeat of the BJP, his party, in the legislative election for the state of Karnataka, where he was a star campaigner.

 

He, along with other leaders of the BJP, turned the election into an anti-Muslim hate campaign, saying that he had closed hundreds of madrasas and would ensure that all are closed.

 

He also parroted familiar tropes about Indian Muslims, portraying them as against family planning.

 

Statistics show that rates of polygamy are almost identical among Hindus and Muslims in India, and Muslim fertility rates have fallen sharply in recent decades.

 

But facts are inconvenient when the aim is to spread lies about a religious minority community.



Then there is the chief minister of Uttarakhand state, also from the BJP, who said that a background check would be done on all outsiders.

 

This announcement, clearly aimed at targeting Muslims, was made just after a Muslim boy was arrested on allegations of trying to kidnap a minor Hindu girl.

 

Posters are up in multiple towns in the state asking Muslims to leave the place and shut their business, or marking Muslim-owned shops with ‘X’ signs — reminiscent of Nazi Germany and the targeting of Jews.

 

Rallies are being held demanding the expulsion of Muslims, and many of them have already fle