“If 100 of us are ready to kill 2
million of them, then we will win and make India a Hindu nation,” said Pooja
Shakun Pandey, a leader of Hindu Mahasabha, a group that espouses militant
Hindu nationalism, referring to the country’s Muslims. “Be ready to kill and go
to jail.”
Even by the standards of the rising
anti-Muslim fury in India, the three-day conference in the city of Haridwar,
150 miles north of New Delhi, produced the most blatant and alarming call for
violence in recent years.
The crowded auditorium, where right-wing
Hindu monks called for other Hindus to arm themselves and kill Muslims,
included influential religious leaders with close ties to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s governing party, and even some members of the party.
Videos of the event have spread widely
on social media in India this week. Yet Modi has maintained a characteristic
silence that analysts say can be interpreted by his most extreme supporters as
a tacit signal of protection.
Police, who readily jail rights
activists and comedians on charges lacking evidence, have been slow to take
action. Even opposition political groups have been restrained in their
response, an indication of the degree to which right-wing Hindu nationalism has
gripped the country since Modi came to office in 2014.
The inflammatory remarks come as some
states governed by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, are holding
elections, including in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where the conference was
held. Modi was busy campaigning this week in Uttar Pradesh for Yogi Adityanath,
his hard-line protégé and the state’s chief minister, who has frequently fanned
anti-Muslim hatred.
Multiple episodes of violence against
Muslims have been reported during election season, including attacks by mobs
trying to close businesses owned by Muslims.
“There are virtually only a handful of
political leaders left who even mention the need to preserve India’s
secularism,” said Gilles Verniers, a professor of political science at Ashoka
University near New Delhi. “The BJP may face increasing political challenges,
but it has won its cultural war, with lasting effects on India’s democracy, and
on India’s largest minority.”
Right-wing Hindu nationalists have
preached violence online for years, but the violence has recently spilled onto
the streets. Muslim fruit sellers have been beaten and their earnings snatched
away after being accused of luring Hindu women into marriage to convert them.
Muslim activists have been threatened with prosecution under an anti-terrorism
law that has been scrutinised by courts.
In recent months, Hindu nationalists in
Gurugram, a major technology centre about 15 miles south of New Delhi, have
confronted Muslims during Friday prayer. Bands of right-wing Hindus have
interrupted prayers with chants of “Jai Shri Ram!” Meaning “Hail Lord Ram,” a
major Hindu god, the chant has become a battle cry for Hindu nationalists.
“We are fast losing everything in this
country, including the right to worship,” said Niyaz Farooqi, a Muslim who
works in an automobile showroom in Gurugram. “A right given to us by the
constitution of this country.”
On Friday, four days after the
conference ended, and after the videos circulated widely, police in Uttarakhand
announced that they had opened an investigation but that no arrests had been
made. Officials said they have registered a case against organisers of the
conference for promoting “enmity between different groups on grounds of
religion,” which can mean a jail term of five years.
“We will do the investigation as per
law, and such types of incidents will not be tolerated,” said Ashok Kumar, a
top police officer in the state of Uttarakhand.
During the conference, Swami
Prabodhanand Giri, head of a right-wing Hindu organisation in Uttarakhand, said
the country now belongs to Hindus.
“This is why, like in Myanmar, the
police here, the politicians here, the army and every Hindu must pick up
weapons, and we will have to conduct this cleanliness drive,” he said while referring
to Muslims. “There is no solution apart from this.”
Prabodhanand’s aides declined to comment
for this article.
Videos from the conference also showed
Suresh Chavhanke, who heads a news channel, administering an oath to turn India
into a Hindu-first country.
“We make a resolution until our last
breath: We will make India a Hindu nation and keep it a Hindu-only nation,” he
said. “We will fight and die if required; we will kill as well.” He then
tweeted a video of the oath to his half-million followers.
Political observers say the government
is allowing hate speech of this kind by remaining silent in the face of calls
for violence, a silence underscored by the meekness of the political
opposition.
Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a biographer of
Modi who has written extensively on the rise of the Hindu right, said the BJP’s
earlier leaders thought they could use Hindu nationalism to mobilise
constituencies but then contain the ideology. That calculation backfired in
1992, when Hindu activists demolished a major mosque.
Many earlier BJP leaders expressed
regrets about the episode, but Modi has no such qualms, Mukhopadhyay said at a
recent book event.
“They thought they were going to ride
the tiger, easily tame it and get down. But you can’t easily tame a tiger. If
you ride the tiger, you have to decide that at some point the tiger is going to
eat,” he said. “Modi decided to allow the tiger to eat sometimes and lead the
tiger when he wants to.”
© 2021 The New York Times Company
(Note: This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed. PriyaSaha.Com Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. Please visit the Source Website that deserves the credit and responsibility for creating this content.)
