The notorious and aggressive Hindu Janjagruti Samiti (HJS) and its ally Sanatan Sanstha who’s activists (and masterminds) have been linked to the accused of rationalist murders of Narendra Dabholkar (2013), Govind Pansare (2015), MM Kalburgi (2015) and Gauri Lankesh (2017) presently hosts an international meet to hail and promote the idea of Hindu Rashtra (India as a Hindutva Theorcracy).
The convention in Goa with online and offline participation of 1500 participants began on Friday June 16 and continues through June 22. At this juncture when a secular government has been voted to power in the neighbouring state of Karnataka it is crucial to understand how the tentacles of the HJS and close associate body Sanatan Sanstha spawn over to the southern Indian state.
At the HJS press conference held in New Delhi four days ago, HJS announced the agenda for the seven-day meet scheduled to be held at Shree Vidyadhiraj Hall, Shri Ramnath Devasthan, Bandora in Ponda, Goa. With a BJP government firmly in this holiday destination diverse state, Goa, no disruptions are likely. The vast campus of the organisation Sanatan Sanstha (founded by Jaidev Athawale) set in the balmy clime of south Goa, Ponda is housed just here.
Apart from controversial and divisive issues like the constructed ‘love jihad’, ‘halal’ versus ‘jhatka’ meat, ‘land iihad, ‘Kashi-Mathura mukti, conversions,’ ‘cow-slaughter’, ‘Islamic invasion on forts’ and “persecution of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh’ the outfits are unlikely to stop here.
Already at the end of the first day, Ranjit Savarkar, grandson of Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar, on Friday, June 16 called for an economic boycott of the Muslim community and exhorted Hindus to carry out “only Hindu-to-Hindu” trade. He was an invitee and speaker at the inauguration of a six-day ‘Vaishvik Hindu Rashtra Mahotsav’ being held in Goa.
Then, the HJS ‘national spokesperson’ Chandrakant Pingale is pushing a film, ‘Goa Files’, on the “atrocities on Hindus during the Portuguese rule in the state.” Clearly Christians are also on the radar now. Live-in couples and same sex relationships also are a target as “immoral” as the ‘Guru’ Chandrakant Pingale of HJS has called them the reason for natural calamities like Cyclone Biparjoy.
Several prominent names associated with HJS, have been over the past week holding small, seemingly innocuous gatherings in different parts of the country to announce the heralding of the Hindu Rashtra. Their meetings are being held in localities and temples. Besides, the modus of online satsang are being used to propagate the HJS Mahotsav. All the Members of HJS and their social media accounts are full of photos of the proposed Sabha and Vaishvik Hindu Rashtra Mahotsav.
The links of the HJS with a wider ecosystem of political hate-mongers is evident. Who else will dot the HJS conference with the presence? Repeat offenders in terms of provocative hate speech have been invited and are likely to turn up in Goa and attend. The names likely to reach Ponda Goa and create a stor by their hate speech are Kalicharan Maharaj, Raja Singh, Suresh Chavhanke of Sudarshan News and others.
Karnataka poll losses, CAA 2019 and HJS
In a unique analysis of the recent “defeat’ of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recently conducted state polls in Karnataka (May 2023), the HJS has attributed this to the “confusions among Hindus of the failure to implement the Citizenship Act.”
The HJS has a presence in the southern state and Guruprasad Gowda is the state coordinator for the Hindu militant organization – Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. He is known for his staunch anti-minority stance and assertions of converting India into a Hindu Rashtra (nation).
“Let us not be satisfied with token presence, but be ready to put our full might for the establishment of Hindu Rashtra,” Gowda had said speaking at a state-level program for Hindu Rashtra in Bangalore.
“The demand for Hindu Rashtra does not mean just a change in the constitution, but a Hindu Rashtra based on the foundation of Dharma. If a Nation is developing, it does not mean it is progressing. We need to establish an ideal Hindu Rashtra based on the principles of Rama Rajya. All Hindu organisations must unitedly join in this struggle” Gowda added.
HJS and SS have been implicated and investigated in fomenting communal unrest in Goa and bordering states. Notably, the members of the HJS have been accused of several terror plots, including the 2009 Diwali-eve Margao bomb blast. The organization is also suspected to be linked to accused plotting the killings of rationalists Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar, and journalist Gauri Lankesh.
Then there is Mohan Gowda, who, through his social media accounts, repeatedly spews venom against Muslims, spreads falsehood and propaganda, and shares visuals of his hateful campaigns, often referring to Muslims as ‘terrorists’ and ‘jihadists.’ He was hyperactive in 2020, when the report of Justice H N Nagamohan Das Commission was released related to SC/ST reservation that –among many steps towards affirmative action –blamed the “emergence of Vedic philosophy” for social inequality and the caste system in the state. Gowda reacted to the commission’s findings by calling the judge ‘anti-National’ and ‘anti-Hindu.’ Gowda had even demanded of the erstwhile Bommai-led BJP government that such Judges should be ‘avoided’ frtom appointed to commissions in future. Gowda has also demanded on behalf of his organization –HJS Karnataka — a ban on ‘halal meat’ in Karnataka. He notoriously said: “They (Muslims) are taking over our country like a disease. For one Hindu child, there are five Muslim children. Yet Muslims are the minority. That is why we have organized this meeting to make people aware that we need a Hindu Rashtra.”
Rationalist Murders & HJS
Investigating agencies in both Maharashtra and Karnataka have found serious linkages between the SS and the political assassinations of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar in Pune on August 20, 2013; M. M. Kalburgi in Dharwad on August 30, 2015; and Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. However, the Maharashtra Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing Govind Pansare’s case has not made any significant progress as such. Similar links between accused with the HJS have been made in the assassination Gauri Lankesh (2017). So far less than 100 witnesses have been examined and the entire list of witnesses touches close to 300.
HJS in pre election Karnataka: 2023
From February 23, 2023 in Tumakuru, February 25 (Bengaluru and Mysuru), Februaray 26 (Udupi, coastal Karnataka), March 10, 2023 (Tumakuru) and March 12 (Dakshin Karnataka and Bengaluru), HJS has been extremely proactive in holding meetings where inevitably hate speeches were given in the run up to the recent elections.