Incitement to Discrimination, Hostility and Violence

IPT 2.2 | April 2023 | Section 4

State actors continue to platform and engage with acts of incitement to hostility and discrimination against religious minorities. The following incidents have been reported by media: 

Non-state actors, especially groups within the Hindutva ideological umbrella, continue to mobilise and incite hostility and violence, bolstered both by impunity against such crimes:

BJP leaders, including Maharashtra state legislator (MLA) Nitesh Rane attended a Hindutva rally in March in capital Mumbai, which called for economic boycott of Muslims, along with making speeches accusing Muslims of waging ‘love jihad’ and ‘land jihad’, which are conspiratorial rhetoric targetting India’s Muslim minority. The rally called the ‘Hindu Jan Aakrosh Morcha’ (Hindu People’s Retribution Movement) was organised by a collective of Hindutva groups, the Sakal Hindu Samaj, was attended by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, both Hindu militant organisations, and flagged off by Geeta Jain, an independent MLA. Similar rallies have been taking place in the state inciting hostility and violence against Muslims, with the state government granting permission to the organisers for such gatherings, despite the speeches in the rallies over the months violating national laws on hate speech. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad las led the mobilisation of the ‘love jihad’ trope to incite hatred and discrimination, and violence, since 2014, when it announced an anti-love jihad campaign in Maharashtra. The rallies in March were an outcome of this manufactured campaign by the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, that shared their plans to launch another anti-love jihad ‘awareness’ campaign. The rallies were permitted to carry on despite memorandums to authorities from the civil society that the rallies could incite violence. The impact of such ‘campaigns’ to further the Hindutva agenda is demonstrated in comments made by the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister that the government had taken cognisance of the 50 Jan Akrosh rallies and will soon take a decision on bringing a law against love jihad, after looking at similar laws in other states.  

On January 29th, BJP leaders and Hindutva groups took out a rally in Central Mumbai against ‘love jihad’, demanding anti-conversion laws and a crackdown on land grabbing in the name of religion. The groups included Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS – the ideological parent of the BJP), Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Sakal Hindu Samaj, along with politicians belonging to the BJP and Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena party. BJP MLA and the party’s Mumbai president Ashish Shelar, BJP Member of national Parliament (MP) from Mumbai North Gopal Shetty, BJP MP from Mumbai North East Manoj Kotak, state legislator Pravin Darekar, BJP secretary Vinod Shelar, and Sheetal Mhatre, former Mumbai municipality corporator and now member of Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena participated in the rally. These alleged anti-Hindu conspiracies of love jihad, conversion, land grabbing are being used to mobilise anti Muslim and anti-Christian sentiments in the state now ruled by the BJP, and legitimise discriminatory policies. 

The Karnataka state elections are scheduled for May 2023. Several BJP leaders have been dogwhistling anti-Muslim rhetoric, using the 18th century Muslim Mysore ruler who fought against British expansion in India, to refer to Muslims in the state. In March, BJP legislator Basangouda Patil Yatnal invoked Tipu Sultan while addressing a rally in Vijayapura, asking those present to not vote for Muslims. In February, BJP Karnataka president Nalin Kumar Kateel promoted religious polarisation saying the upcoming assembly elections were all about “Tipu versus Savarkar (the Hindutva ideologue)”. These leaders have not faced any action from the State or Central Election Commissions or the courts, despite flouting Supreme Court of India’s 2017 ruling banning candidate’s from soliciting votes based on identity. Another BJP Minister in the state, Munirathna, attacked Christians in the state in a television interview claiming that conversions were taking place in slums, adding: ‘If they come for conversion, then hit them and send them back or give a complaint at the police station.’ 

These mobilisations are triggered strategically, to incite violence and drive fear among and against religious minorities, especially Muslims and Christians. Some incidents of such incitement from the past three months include: which prohibit the sale, slaughter of cattle in varied degrees in 20 out of India’s 28 states.  

The speakers at the events in Jantar Mantar included priests previously accused of making inciteful speeches, as well as a retired Indian Police Service officer: Anand Kumar, Ragini Tiwari, Suraj Pal Ammu, Aastha Maa, and Annapurna Bharti. A speaker Mahamandleshwar Swami Bhakt Hari Singh, can be seen in video recordings of the event saying: “When will you (Hindus) slay and kill? After all of you die? When will you kill them? When will you kill Muslims and Christians? What will you kill them with? Those small knives used to cut vegetables? They are no good. You must keep weapons!” [translated].  Over 400 people attended this event which was promoted on social media, with recordings of it shared widely. The other Dharam Sansad was held simultaneously and broadcast on Sudarshan TV, the editor-in-chief of which made inciteful speeches at similar Dharam Sansads held in December 2021. At this second event in February, speaker Karan Ji Maharaj is heard saying: “Let me tell you the meaning of ‘Musalman’ (Muslim), the one who will learn (man) only after being beaten by a flail (musal). A jihadi does ‘love jihad’ with our sister and daughter. And that society remains silent, saying that they sacrificed their daughter. What did you sacrifice? Just go to that Jihadi’s house and finish off his family. Others would think twice before doing this in the future.”  [translated] Both these events took place in the heart of Delhi, at Jantar Mantar complex, 2 kilometres from the Parliament building. The speakers and organisers of the event have faced no action from authorities, who are reported to have sent notices to social media news channels for sharing inciting messages.  The events also had members of the ruling BJP in attendance. BJP Haryana state chief media coordinator and president of the Hindu extremist Karni Sena Surajpal Amu, addressed the gathering and said, “India was, is and will remain a Hindu rashtra (nation). Those who do not believe so should go to Pakistan or Bangladesh.” Similar calls to make India a Hindu Rashtra have been made at previous such ‘religious parliaments’ as well, with no response from the state against these threats to India’s constitutional character. This contrasts with the four chargesheets the National Investigation Authority has filed alleging that members of the now banned Popular Front of India conspired to establish Islamic rule in India by 2047. Or with the Uttar Pradesh government’s response to Islamic scholar Maulana Tauqeer Raza’s comments asking for a ban on Hindutva groups that were spreading Islamophobia. The Muslim cleric and Ittehad-e-Millat Council chief was placed under house arrest for three days for his comments in March. 

On January 9th in Gujarat’s Surat district, the Bajrang Dal took out a rally where songs inciting violence against Muslims and to convert India to a Hindu nation were played loudly in public. The police were present during the rally but no action was taken to stop the inciteful and discriminatory music. Bajrang Dal was also reported to have armed 300 Hindu men with trishul (tridents) in Jaipur Rajasthan in January.  The outfit’s Rajasthan State Coordinator said that this was done to protect the country and religion, akin to our ancestors who took up arms to protect dharma (religion).   

On January 11th, a Hindutva mob led by the Bajrang Dal was recorded on video demonstrating and shouting slogans outside a mosque in Shimoga, Karnataka.  

In Madhya Pradesh on January 25th, Hindutva groups raised Islamophobic slogans outside a movie theatre playing a movie titled ‘Pathaan’ starring Shahrukh Khan. The slogans included statements demeaning the Prophet as well as threatening to shoot those who betray the nation (this slogan was used to mobilise and incite violence against Muslims during the 2020 Delhi riots). Following an outcry against lack of police action against those raising the slogans, four men were arrested and charged under Sections 295(A), 153(A) among others for outraging religious beliefs and promoting enmity between groups. The men were granted bail soon after on January 29th by a sessions court; a stark contrast to human rights activists and journalists who spend months and years in jail on similar allegations.  

On February 19th, Hindutva right wing group Sri Ram Sena’s (Lord Ram’s Army) chief Pramod Muthalik focussed on the ‘love jihad’ rhetoric to incite hostility and violence against women at an event in Karnataka. Assuring security and employment to Hindu men, he extolled them to ‘trap’ Muslim women: “We are aware of the situation. I would like to invite the youth here. If we lose one Hindu girl, we should trap 10 Muslim girls. If you do so, the Sri Ram Sena will take responsibility for you and provide every kind of security and employment,”. Muthalik is set to run as an independent candidate in the state’s upcoming Assembly elections from Udupi’s Karkala constituency.  

The impact of incitement by non-state actors is emblematic in the murder of Mohammad Fazil, who was hacked to death last year on July 28th 2022. The murder was allegedly in retaliation for the killing of BJP youth leader Praveen Nettaru in Karnataka earlier that year. Fazil was an innocent man not connected with the murder, but allegedly targetted for his Muslim identity. In January 2023, Sharan Pumpwell, a senior leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), openly claimed that it was Hindutva activists who murdered Fazil to avenge Nettaru’s murder. A week after the speech, Fazil’s brother was attacked and beaten by three men. 

In February in a Sahu Samaj Hindu religious event in Shaktighat, Chhatisgarh, another Hindutva religious leader of Sahu Samaj Deepak Tarachand Sahu was recorded making inciteful speeches against Muslims and using the ‘love jihad’ trope to incite Hindus to take up arms against Muslims: “To the Muslim community I want to say that till today you lived a peaceful life and there was no communal tension but if you take a Hindu girl then we will kill you” (at this line, the crowd started cheering for him) [translated by media]. No action has been taken against the speaker by the state for the speech. 

On social media, Hindutva leaders and groups brazenly incite violence and share videos of acts of violence with no punitive action from the police. On March 6th, a Muslim man named Shahrukh Khan was brutally assaulted, with his head shaved off by a mob in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. The video of the attack was shared on social media, including on the Facebook page of Hindutva leader Aastha Maa, along with the caption: “Today, one Shahrukh Khan has been caught; he had a razor in his pocket, used by barbers. He was beaten up by people, but I told them to shave his head instead, and he was tonsured then, very beautiful. Will you not congratulate me?” [translated]. Her voice can also be heard in the video. While her post has since been deleted, the Ghaziabad police has taken no action against her despite a number of journalists reporting it. Aastha Maa has in the past been photographed with India’s Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah, and has also posted videos in the past of vandalising houses of Muslims as well as spreading falsehoods on the love jihad conspiracy, with no police action taken against her. 

In April, the Bajrang Dal and VHP held 15 separate Trident (Trishul) distribution events across Northern India. According to speeches at the events, the weapons were being given to the youth present ‘to protect Hindu religion, culture, women and cows.’ The events were spread across Gujarat, Jammu, Rajasthan, with multiple events in different parts of the states. Along with receiving the trident, the young men present also took an oath to protect Hindu religion. In the Jammu event in March, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Dinesh Bharti cautioned all Hindus to keep Trishuls at home. He said, “For those jihadis there is no place in this country. They should leave Bharat  and this Hindustan is not theirs.”