Haridwar: Outrage in India over anti-Muslim hate speech has resulted in a police investigation
Image credit: BBC
After Hindu leaders advocated violence against Muslims, police in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand initiated an inquiry. Provocative statements from a meeting of Hindu religious leaders went viral earlier this week, causing controversy. Between the 17th and 19th of December, the festival took place in the holy town of Haridwar.
Because there had been no official complaints before Thursday, police claimed they had not launched a case.
There have been no arrests, and the police complaint only mentions one person: Waseem Rizvi, a Muslim who claims to have converted to Hinduism and now goes by the name Jitendra Narayan Tyagi.
Activists claim that since the BJP took power in 2014, the number of hate crimes against Muslims and other minorities has grown. In India, videos of hate speech or violence directed at Muslims are frequently shared on social media.
Critics claim that this is due to the offenders’ open and tacit assistance from ruling party leaders.
In one shot, Pushkar Dhami, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and a BJP politician is seen touching his feet.
In a video posted on Twitter, former BJP spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay, who was also there at the event, stated in a video posted on Twitter that he was only there for half an hour on the last day.
Mr Upadhyay was arrested in August in connection with an anti-Muslim protest in Delhi, the nation’s capital.
Mr Tyagi was the contentious head of a board that controlled Shia Muslim estates, and he announced earlier this month that he had converted to Hinduism after abandoning Islam.
Mr Kumar told The Indian Express that the lawsuit was filed after a local citizen complained, naming only Mr Tyagi and said he couldn’t identify the others.
Videos from a separate ceremony held in Delhi on the same day as those from Haridwar became viral around the same time.
In one of them, a journalist from a right-wing television station is shown swearing at a gathering of people to die for and kill to make India a Hindu nation. Later, he claimed that he was repeating a 1645 pledge sworn by the Maratha emperor Shivaji.
About The Author
