Senior BJP leader pledges that India will be a Hindu state, threatens mosque demolitions nationwide
A senior leader of the far-right Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka state, K.S. Eshwarappa, pledged to the media that “India will become a Hindu nation” after declaring that mosques built on grounds claimed by Hindus would be destroyed nationwide.
“Mosques built after destroying our temples won’t be spared,” he said. “Not a single such mosque will stand in this country. “
Eshwarappa was referencing a common myth circulated by the Hindu right, which claims that several thousand mosques in India were built on the remains of demolished temples. However, historians estimate that only a dozen or so temples were destroyed during several centuries of Indian Muslim rule.
Hindu militant groups declare intent to stop Muslim religious group gathering
The violent Hindu militant groups Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal have vowed to stop a three-day gathering held by the Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim organization.
“It is not appropriate for the state government to allocate three crore rupees to the Tablighi Jamaat organization, which trains for programs like terrorism, spreading Islam, and engaging in conversions,” the militant groups said in a joint statement, in a blatantly false characterization of the Muslim group.
Conversely, both the VHP and the Bajrang Dal are militant groups with long histories of participating in massacres, home and mosque demolitions, hate crimes, cow vigilantism, and other acts of violence.
Hindu supremacist groups threaten to protest if Muslim vendors not banned from temple fair
Hindu supremacist groups threatened to stage a protest if Muslim vendors are not banned from setting up stalls at a historic temple fair in Karnataka.
The groups justified their call for blatant discrimination and economic boycott by parroting anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, claiming that Muslims “hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus through cow slaughter, beef consumption, [and] Love Jihad.”
