The Secret War: RAW, Separatists, and India's Unease

This Sinks Your Stomach: Watching How India’s Treating Folks These Days (and What They’re Really Up To). You read the headlines, right? “Minorities in India face deteriorating treatment,” the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said just this Tuesday. And then, the kicker: they’re actually recommending targeted sanctions against India’s external spy agency – that’s RAW – over alleged involvement in bumping off Sikh separatists. Think about that for a minute. Your stomach just kind of clenches, doesn’t it?

This isn’t some minor disagreement; this is about serious allegations of a government agency reaching across borders to silence dissent, all while things are reportedly going from bad to worse for minority communities within India itself. It just sinks your stomach.

Honestly, that’s the feeling that’s been sitting there – a real, gnawing unease – reading about what’s happening over there. It ain’t some academic debate or a disappointment in a perfect idea; it’s a raw, unpleasant feeling watching a country seem hell-bent on going down a really nasty road, and now we’re hearing whispers – no, outright accusations – about how far they might be willing to go.

Those reports coming out, especially from that US Commission, and now with this bombshell about RAW, you can argue about everyone’s motivations until you’re blue in the face, but the picture they paint is just grim, and now it’s got this extra layer of something… sinister. It’s not just numbers in a report; it’s about real people’s lives getting tougher, their sense of safety being chipped away bit by bit. When they flat-out say religious freedom is “deteriorating,” that’s not some fancy term – it means things are actively getting worse for people who aren’t part of the majority. And to hear these credible accusations that the very people in charge are actually stirring up hate and spreading blatant lies against these groups, while allegedly running these covert ops against people they don’t like? That just leaves you feeling properly sick.

Take that garbage about Prime Minister Modi calling Muslim citizens “infiltrators” and bleating on about their kids. That’s not a slip of the tongue. That’s calculated. That’s about making a whole chunk of the population feel like outsiders, like they’re the problem. It’s the kind of talk that gives the absolute worst elements in society a twisted kind of permission to act on their own poisonous prejudices. And now, with these RAW allegations hanging in the air, you have to wonder just how far this “us vs. them” mentality goes within the very structures of power. It’s just plain nasty.

And it’s not just hot air, is it? You’ve got actual laws being passed that smell rotten to high heaven, like that citizenship deal the UN’s flagged as totally unfair. Then you’ve got these so-called anti-conversion laws, all dressed up in pious language, but they’re just weapons to go after minorities for what they believe. What went down in Kashmir, ripping away their special status and then shutting everything down? That sent a crystal-clear message to the Muslim-majority there, didn’t it? And then you see homes and shops getting bulldozed, often belonging to Muslims, and it just feels vindictive, like a deliberate attempt to make people feel utterly powerless – and with these RAW allegations, you can’t help but wonder if this heavy-handedness extends far beyond their own borders.

The Indian government just waving all this away as “biased” just doesn’t cut it. Instead of actually dealing with what’s being said and trying to sort things out, it’s just a flat-out “nah, not us.” Claiming their programs help everyone equally rings hollow when you’ve got solid evidence of discrimination and violence piling up, and now, these serious claims about their spy agency operating with impunity overseas. There’s a real disconnect between the official story and what folks on the ground are actually going through, a disconnect that now has this really disturbing edge with the RAW accusations.

The US Commission even suggesting slapping India on their “country of particular concern” list and talking about sanctions against individuals, and now specifically naming RAW? That’s heavy stuff. Whether it actually happens with all the political games going on is anyone’s guess, but it tells you how seriously worried people outside India are getting – not just about the internal treatment of minorities, but about the potential reach and methods being employed by their security apparatus. Human rights seem to be playing second fiddle to who’s buddying up with who against China, with some folks seemingly willing to turn a blind eye to all this. But you gotta ask yourself what kind of real partnership you can build when a big chunk of the population is being treated like dirt, and their intelligence agencies are being linked to assassinations in other countries.

Watching India barrel down this track, where one lot is being deliberately pushed to the margins and targeted, and now with these deeply troubling allegations about RAW’s actions abroad, just leaves you with this awful feeling. It’s not some fairytale of a nation going wrong; it’s watching a country actively choose a path of division and rank unfairness, possibly even exporting that ruthlessness. And the people who are going to pay the price are the minorities, their lives becoming more and more precarious, and the international community now having serious questions about the nature of the regime itself. It makes you seriously wonder what the long-term damage will be, not just for them, but for the whole damn country, and what this revelation about RAW means for international norms. It’s a gut-wrenching thing to witness.