'We've Become a Muslim-hating Country, Face an Existential Crisis': Former IAS Officer Avay Shukla

In an interview to discuss the sort of campaign waged by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, where conscious and deliberate attempts were made in speeches and advertisements to demonise and vilify the Muslim community, one of the country’s best known bloggers and a widely read author of short stories, Avay Shukla, has said “We’ve become a Muslim-hating country” and India faces “an existential crisis”. Shukla said, “We are creating the grounds for an explosion. I despair for my children, I despair for my country, I don’t see any ray of hope”.

In a 30-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Shukla, a former senior IAS officer, said the prime minister’s speeches were “not dog whistles but commands to take action along these lines”.