Addressing the Hindu Mahapanchayat, convened on the call given by Devbhoomi Vichar Manch and supported by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang dal and other affiliated organisations of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), T Raja, BJP legislator from Hyderabad known for his hate speeches in the past, said he had come to Uttarakhand to “awaken Hindus in the state”. He called upon them to get united.

Addressing the gathering, Raja advised the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to hold a dialogue with neighbouring Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over a cup and tea and get a cue on “how to tackle the issue of illegal mosques and mazaars”. Darshan Bharati, another hate monger from Uttarakhand, was also present during the mahapanchayat, as per media reports.

Suresh Chauhan, a ruling BJP legislator from Gangtori, said efforts should be made to declare Uttarkashi as a Hindu religious town since many revered Hindu shrine and temples were located in the district. He also called for complete ban on selling of meat, eggs and non-vegetarian food in the district.

On the issue of the Uttarakashi mosque, Chauhan said a re-inquiry, as ordered by the Uttarakhand Chief Minister, would be held and if any illegality was found, the mosque would be demolished. He also made a strong pitch against “outsiders” coming into Uttarkashi and getting involved in small businesses. Without naming Muslims, he warned locals against renting out their houses to “outsiders”.

Earlier, Congress party was attacked by the speakers, who drew parallels with ‘jehadis’ and terming the party as the “bane” of the entire Hindu community, responsible for the Partition of the country and resultant killing of Hindus and Sikhs.

Heavy security arrangements were made for the Hindu Mahapanchayat, which was called to demand demolition of the Uttarkashi mosque, which Hindutva forces claimed, was built illegally. Extra forces from neighbouring districts were also deployed in the town.

Interestingly, the Uttarakhand government gave permission for the Hindu Mahapanchayat despite giving an undertaking in the Nainital High Court last Wednesday that no permission had been granted.

Uttarkashi district administration gave permission with several conditions, which included not making any hate speech, not taking out any rally, not obstructing traffic, not inciting religious sentiments and maintaining peace.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari and Justice Rakesh Thapliyal of Nainital High Court issued directives to the Uttarakhand government and state Director General of Police to maintain peace and security related to the ongoing agitation by Hindu outfits demanding the demolition of the 55-year-old mosque. The division bench had the heard a petition related to the case on November 22, 2024.

The police holding a march in Uttarkashi town a day before holding of Hindu Mahapanchayat.

Meanwhile, the ‘Alpsankhayak Seva Samiti’ had filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking its intervention in the issue alleging threats by the Sanyukt Sanatan Dharam Raksha Sangh, a Hindu outfit, against the Uttarkashi mosque and hate speeches directed against the minority Muslim community.  The petition had also sought the court’s intervention in preventing the Mahapanchayat called by the Hindu Right-wing groups in Uttarakashi on December 1, 2024.

Admitting the petition, the court directed the Uttarkashi District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police (SP) to ensure tight security around the Uttarkashi mosque. The court also directed the registry to list the petition as a fresh case on November 27, 2024.

In a hearing before the division bench of the High Court last Friday, senior counsels Kartikey Hari Gupta, Imran Ali Khan, Pallavi Bahuguna, Rafat Munir Ali, and Irum Zeba, representing the petitioners, raised serious concerns regarding hate speeches directed at Muslims.

The state government, through its counsel, informed the court that permission for holding any such Mahapanachayat would not be issued.

The senior counsels for the petitioners also pleaded that the  mosque on Bhatwari Road in Uttarkashi was constructed in 1969 on privately purchased land. It was further stated that “in 1986, the Assistant Waqf Commissioner of Uttar Pradesh conducted an inquiry and confirmed that a mosque existed on Khasra No. 2223, built by members of the Muslim community using charitable funds and used since then by the Muslims and in 1987 was officially registered as Wakf property.”

The petitioners alleged that members of the Sanyukt Sanatan Dharam Raksha Sangh and their associates had engaged in “extreme hate speech” against Muslims and the mosque which, they argued, were in complete violation of the directions issued by the Supreme Court in the case of Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay vs. Union of India Others.

The petitioners asserted that in September 2024, Hindu outfit leaders —Jitendra Singh Chauhan, Swami Darshan Bharti, Sonu Singh Negi, Lakhpat Singh Bhandari, and Anuj Walia—who identify themselves as members of the Sanyukt Sanatan Dharam Raksha Sangh and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, began threatening to demolish the mosque. They alleged that these leaders had also spread false information about the mosque’s legality. The next date of hearing t is fixed for December 5, 2024.

Uttarkashi town saw violence on October 24, 2024, when Hindutva groups tried to take out a procession toward the mosque and had violent confrontation with the police force which tried to prevent them by erecting barricades. Several protestors and policemen were injured in the lathi-charge and police arrested eight Hindutva leaders and registered cases against 200 unidentified persons for violence.

Interestingly, Hindutva groups reportedly continued to spread their communal agenda despite the fact that the Uttarkashi district administration, after a through inquiry, found the mosque to be legal. But following the October 24 incident and pressure from Hindutva groups in the run-up to the Kedarnath bye-elections on November 20, Chief Minister Dhami went to Uttarkashi on November 6, in a bid to assuage the ‘hurt’ feelings of his fellow political travellers, and announced that the papers of the land on which the Uttarkashi mosque was built would be re-examined by the administration.

Uttarkashi Mosque

The Chief Minister, during his visit, reiterated that ‘land jehad’, ‘love jehad’ and ‘thook(spit) jehad’ would not be tolerated in ‘Devbhoomi’ Uttarakhand  and his government had “freed” 5,000 acres of encroached land. He further said that the administration would re-examine the land papers of the Uttarkashi mosque to see if there was any illegality.

A delegation of Hindu organisations, led by district BJP chief Satinder Rana, also met the Chief Minister and complained against police lathi charge on October 24. In a bid to “placate” them, the state administration acted swiftly, and finding no scapegoat, transferred a Muslim officer, Raza Abbas, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), to  the state headquarters in Dehradun, while Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Prashant Kumar, Uttarkashi was also attached with the police headquarters in Dehradun with immediate effect.

On November 28, 2024, before the proposed Hindu Mahapanchayat, Uttarkashi Superintendent of Police Amit Srivastava, who acted tough against any law breaker and was on the target of Hindutva groups, was also transferred and replaced by Sarita Dobhal.

The writer is a freelances based in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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