Socio-economic boycott of minorities is one of the important tools of persecution employed by far right and fringe elements to oppress minorities in the country. Last month, Radha Semwal Dhoni, from Uttarakhand shot a video of “nabbing” a Muslim vegetable vendor and harassing him. She points cameras at the Muslim vendors and asks them their names and their Aadhar card as well. She claims that they represent themselves as Hindus and that they have come from Lucknow. In the video she says that the vendors lie and spit on the vegetables and sell these in her area (where she lives). She asks them, “why do you come here? Why don’t you carry an Aadhar card? Do you want to sell us vegetables that have been spat on?” to this, one of the vendors says, “it’s not true, we are not spitting on vegetables”.
Amidst all this, a young man passing by on his bike asked what the commotion was about. He was asking Radha and other women supporting her, why they were harassing these men saying, “there are not selling bombs.” This infuriated Radha as she says, “why are you taking their side? They are outsiders.” To which he says, “don’t talk nonsense”. While the women keep demanding aadhar cards from the vendors.
He argues, “he’s selling vegetables, poor man is trying to earn a livelihood, stop harassing him”. Radha says, “They are saying they are Hindus but they are Muslims. I am not going to buy vegetables from a Muslim”.
Location: Uttarakhand
Last month, Hindu far-right leader Radha Semwal Dhoni harassed & stopped poor Muslim vegetable vendors from selling produce in a Hindu area.
She falsely accused them of spitting on vegetables. A local Hindu youth intervened to save the vendors. pic.twitter.com/rpLywyJJ4m
— HindutvaWatch (@HindutvaWatchIn) March 4, 2023
Radha Semwal Dhoni is emerging as a far right leader in Uttarakhand as two other incidents in the recent past, reported by CJP and Sabrang India, depict.
On March 2, Hindutva Watch, Twitter account that tracks hate crimes, reported that some men breaking down a Mazar (Muslim shrine) were led by Radha Semwal as they claimed that the shrine was built on state land. On her Facebook profile, she claims that wants a “mazar mukt Uttarakhand (Muslim shrine free Uttarakhand)”.
She has posted the video of men destroying the mazaar and in the caption, she writes, “show the registry and save your mazaar, Uttarakhand is a land of gods and here only gods will reside.”
Last month, a video of Semwal verbally and physically abusing Christians (two men and one woman) emerged. Semwal asked them how much money they make for converting people. She slapped the girl and when the man stood up to protect her Semwal heckled him and threatened to hit him. The three can be heard saying that they came to the village to offer tuition and coaching, however Semwal accused them of converting people.
Semwal recorded the incident live for 10 minutes and posted it on social media with the title “धर्मपरिवर्तन कराने वालो का इलाज कर दिया | Radha Semwal Dhoni | Christian Missionaries Exposed”.
She has an active account on Facebook, where she posts anti-minority content. Her account is followed by over 7,000 users.
Two days ago she posted this:
In one live video she also shows how a good road is built leading up to a Mazaar as she claims, “such nice roads are built for them while people in villages are living in such bad conditions. Through the video, she says, “they have encroached these lands, there are tenements but they are all locked, they are meant for encroachment. They live in their good homes. This land is only kept by them for the future.”
Related: