As the three-nation tour of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has come to an end, various analysts have put forward their opinions. Some of them praised Bhagwat, saying that he has broadened Hindutva by adding diversity to it. Can Hindutva in any way be broadened to include the rich religious diversity of our country?Respect for diversity can be judged by the condition of religious minorities in a country. It goes without saying that the health of democracy of any country should be judged by the safety and security of the religious minorities. Even as India is falling steeply down in indices related to democracy, we also need to ask how religious minorities themselves perceive their situation – even if a few Muslim leaders and others in privileged positions may deny the worsening plight of minorities.The best way to evaluate this is by looking at the steps the government has taken in the last few years or even over a decade or so. Recently, a meeting of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) was held in Delhi on these issues, and it shows our society an accurate mirror. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 240 Lok Sabha MPs and 117 MPs in Rajya Sabha. It is in power in 20 states but has only two Muslim MLAs nationwide – one in Tripura and one in Manipur.In the PUCL meeting, representatives of human rights organisations articulated their views on the situtation. As far as Muslims are concerned, their demonisation in social thinking was seen to have reached unprecedented levels.In Delhi, the brutal attack by police on two 4 PM journalists (Shaheen Khan and Nafisa Khan) allegedly intensified after the official who was beating them came to know that both the women journalists were Muslims. But while the initial stance towards Muslim communities was to make them objects of hate and violence, now the goal is to disenfranchise them.This step began with the notorious National Register of Citizen (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). As a result of the phenomenoal response of Muslim women, in the form of Shaheen Baghs springing all over the country, that CAA-NRC and National Population Register (NPR) process is on hold. However, the unique idea of cutting them off from electoral rolls has come up in its place, and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was inflicted on the entire country.In state after state, lakhs of voters, mainly Muslims and Dalits, the marginalised sections and classes, are being deleted from the voters list. Nothing can confirm this better than the West Bengal election result, where over 27 lakh voters were found ineligible under SIR just before the polls.Parakala Prabhakar, an economist and political commentator, points out that SIR is not only meant to revise the electoral rolls, it will lead to “two classes of citizens – those who can vote and those who cannot. At the current pace [of deletions from the electoral rolls], an estimated 16 crore people could be disenfranchised. SIR is, in effect, carving out sections of the country from the democratic process.” Also read: US Faith Leaders Say They Were ‘Deceived’ Into Appearing with Mohan Bhagwat at RSS Event in New YorkWhile even the Supreme Court brought a stay on bulldozers being used against Muslims, the chief ministers of some BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh have used it as a badge of honour. Added to these is the threat of delimitation, which will certainly increase the number of representatives from the BJP-dominated states. These are big games being orchestrated by the RSS progeny. At another level, the BJP’s decision to impose a full version of ‘Vande Mataram’, in contrast to what was decided by the Constituent Assembly’s song committee, is an attempt to make non-Hindus worship Hindu deities.Religious freedom in India at the moment is more of an euphemism than reality. State after state has brought in “Freedom of Religion” Acts which essentially mean that those who have chosen a faith other than Hinduism by birth will not be permitted to do so. Not just that, members of minority communities can be attacked on this pretext. There is another phenomenon which RSS affiliates indulge in, called ‘Ghar Wapasi’, where the Adivasis in particular but also those from Dalit communities and the Christians and Muslims are made to accept Hinduism, a phenomenon that is well-entrenched in remote areas of the country.Those monitoring religious freedom have been calling India a country of “particular concern”. One such organisation is the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an official, independent federal body in the country. It opposed Bhagwat’s visit to the United States and issued a statement days before his arrival, saying religious freedoms in India continue to deteriorate, and that violence and incitement are routinely used against minority communities and that the RSS-affiliate groups have been involved in the violence.Also read: Politic | Mohan Bhagwat’s Sermons in the US are Nothing But Hypocrisy and DeceptionColumnist Tavleen Singh wrote in Indian Express, “The more intrepid of these Hindutva warriors stormed into churches and disturbed services with vandalism and violence. Videos of these ‘accomplishments’ were uploaded on social media. In one of them, I saw a BJP legislator enter a church in Jabalpur and harangue a blind woman, whom she accused menacingly of trying to convert Hindus to Christianity…there were nearly a hundred attempts to disrupt Christmas festivities and nearly all of them occurred in states ruled by the BJP. Nobody was punished and no chief minister openly deplored the violence.”Like many other states, Maharashtra’s anti-conversion law has come into force recently. This law paves the way for enforcement against religious conversion through coercion, fraud or inducements. Anyone who wants to adopt another faith must inform the authorities 60 days in advance. If these rules are violated, church officials or individuals can be jailed for seven years. Twenty civil society organisations, including Christian ones, held a press conference on August 24 in Mumbai asking for the withdrawal of this law, which they said was an “intrusive regulation of personal choices” and impinged on an Indian’s right to practise and propagate their faith freely, as guaranteed by the Indian constitution. In the light of this law, churches in the Mumbai region have decided to introduce a “consent form” from those who attend services, such is the climate of fear among the community.On top of attacking prayer meetings, Christian NGOs doing humanitarian work are facing another problem – denial of sources of funds. The new FCRA rules are being framed in a way that halt the charity work done by missionaries and deprive the poor, who depend on such humanitarian efforts. This is the condition in so far as the phrase ‘diversity’ applies to Hindutva politics patriarch Mohan Bgahwat – the word is an ornamental phrase, no more.Ram Puniyani is president of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.