Faced with a domestic catastrophe in the form of a deadly coronavirus pandemic, and a foreign policy crisis in the form of 24 dead Indian soldiers killed earlier this month by Chinese forces in the Ladakh region, the Narendra Modi Hindu-led nationalist government has never felt more humiliated and defeated during its six-year hold on power.
To divert attention from its criminally negligent mishandling of the Covid-19 virus, and to sate the public’s desire for vengeance and retaliation against Beijing, the country’s ruling party – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – has launched a rhetorical war against China, and in cahoots with India’s mainstream but right-wing leaning media.
“We want to hit China economically to make it realise that it will not be spared by Indians for killing our soldiers while earning money through its goods,” said Vikas Chaudhary, an event organiser with Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a branch of the far-right paramilitary group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
In the past few weeks, a “boycott China” campaign has gathered steam, with the government responding by banning more than 50 Chinese-owned apps, including the globally popular social media platform, TikTok.
A war-of-words has since erupted between New Delhi and Beijing, which suits the Chinese Communist Party leadership just fine, as it too looks to divert internal criticism and dissent away from its failure to contain the Covid-19 outbreak, and subsequent economic downturn.
Strangely and perversely, however, the persecuted Muslim minorities of both countries are being used as a political football in this diplomatic back-and-forth, with both Beijing and New Delhi seeking to damage the international reputation of the other by pointing to their respective mistreatment of Muslims.
 | India’s BJP has launched a rhetorical war against China, in cahoots with India’s mainstream but right-wing leaning media |  |
On July 7, India TV news anchor Ajay Kumar asked whether China is involved in the illegal practice of forcibly removing organs from Uighur Muslim detainees to satisfy demand for organ transplants. During the segment he also claimed, “China’s Muslims do not enjoy religious freedoms.”
While there is no disputing that fact, Kumar did not, however, make mention of the fact that human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have publicly condemned India for its own mistreatment of Muslims in India and Kashmir.
On July 9, India Today ran a seven-minute segment on China’s Uighur camps in Xinjiang, or what was once East Turkestan. The piece, however, did not present anything that hadn’t already been reported in the international media during the past two years, but only a recycling of previously reported clips.
India Today did not, however, make any mention of the fact that the Indian government has established its own network of detention camps in the state of Assam, some of which are designed to hold up to 3,000 detainees – people who have suddenly been stripped of their residency under a pair of laws designed to marginalize millions of Muslims as “foreigners” and “invaders”.