BJP Directly Responsible For Khargone Violence: Fact-Finding Report
A fact-finding team has released a damning report saying that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was directly responsible for the communal violence in the region during Ram Navami.
“The violence was deliberately stirred and the reason was political,” said the team, referencing the BJP’s 2018 loss of 9 out of 10 seats in the Khargone assembly. “It is this defeat that the BJP is not able to digest and therefore it is conspiring to cause communal polarization to win the (2023) polls.”
“The officials holding constitutional posts are breaking every law of the rulebook. First they allowed a rally without permission despite the input of a clash, by intelligence,” said Jaswinder Singh, state secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Singh headed the fact-finding team, which was comprised of representatives of eight political parties.
“Even two weeks after the incident, the hate mongering and targeting of a particular community continues unabated. Several videos and photos have surfaced in which people are seen openly boycotting Muslims. Religious places are still under lock and key and relief work is yet to begin,” the team added.
The team further stated that police had deliberately suppressed the death of Ibris Khan, a Muslim man who was the first casualty of the violence, in order to make way for one-sided demolition drive that only targeted Muslims.
“The BJP government and the police would be on the backfoot if the news of Ibris’s death was revealed on the very first day. They may not have been able to demolish the homes and shops of the Muslim community nor be able to carry out one sided action,” Singh said.
Yet Another Hindu Extremist Leader Says Hindus Must Take Up Arms Against Muslims
Pramod Muthalik, a vocal Hindu supremacist and chief of the extremist group Sri Ram Sena, made a vitriolic hate speech in Karnataka state during which he called on Hindus to take up arms against Muslims.
“Until now, cordiality, brother-sister, love, affection. Enough. From now on muscle power… from now on bows and arrows of Ravan, from now on swords, from now on the mace,” he said before a crowd of applauding Hindu extremists.
Muthalik also verbally abused Muslim students who wear the hijab, demanding that they take their hijabs off or be “kicked out of here.”
“Remember that this is the flag of [the] dharma (religion) of our country. We have decided to build a Hindu rashtra (nation) under the same flag. So for the sake of the same Hindu rashtra we… must unite,” he said regarding the saffron flag, which has become a symbol of the hateful Hindu supremacist movement.
No action has been taken against Muthalik for openly inciting violence against Muslims.
Hindu Extremist Students Protest Iftar Party Held On College Campus, Burn Effigy Of Vice Chancellor
A group of Hindu supremacist students from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Uttar Pradesh state voiced their outrage after the school’s Vice Chancellor organized an iftar party on campus, calling the accommodation for Muslim students “politicized” and “appeasement politics.”
The extremist students went as far as to burn the effigy of the Vice Chancellor outside of his residence and declare that he was “not wanted” at BHU.
“[The] VC is trying to impose a new tradition. This has never happened before in the university. He is trying to politicize the entire situation,” said Shubham, a Hindu extremist student.
“This is an anti-Hindu initiative, and we condemn this. If the VC needs to have Iftar, he can go to AMU or Jamia, he’s not wanted right here,” said Ashirvaad Dubey, another extremist student.
18 Hindu Organizations Condemn Violence Against Muslims In A Statement
A group of 18 Hindu organizations from India and the global diaspora co-signed a statement slamming the growing trend of Hindu extremism in India.
“The time is long overdue for Hindus around the world to break our collective silence and speak out against this hate that violates the deepest teachings of our tradition,” the statement said.
The undersigned organizations further pledged “to speak out against anti-Muslim words and actions whenever they show up in our communities” and “to build and strengthen relationships with Muslim neighbors, leaders and institutions in our communities.”
The statement was co-signed by Hindu groups from India, South Africa, New York, New Mexico, Colorado, California, Florida, and Illinois.
