Hate is spreading like wildfire on social media. Some people or profiles may not call for outright violence or use hateful language, but they indirectly sow seeds of hatred against the minorities by deliberately spinning fake stories and influencing the gullible masses.
One such page on Aryavrta on both Facebook and Twitter constantly churns out posts against minorities. Not only this, it regularly targets the media too for being ‘anti-Hindu’. Apart from this, the page has also constantly been calling for a change in the Constitution of India and the abolishment of Article 30 which grants religious and linguistic minorities to establish and administer educational institutions in the country.
Some of the posts from the group may be viewed below.
आतंकवाद,जिहाद,अलगाववाद,राष्ट्रद्रोह पर मस्जिद मदरसे खटकते नहीं❗
धर्मान्तरण के अवैध कारनामें,बलात्कार-शोषण पर चर्च कान्वेंट अखरते नहीं❗
सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः है आधार,धर्म संस्कृति राष्ट्र सेवा में अग्रगण्य फिर भी#सिर्फ_आश्रम_ही_निशाने_पर_क्यों
आश्रम बंद करने की अर्जी मान्य❓— || आर्यावर्त || (@Aryavrta) July 12, 2020
⭕मुस्लिम दे कुरान व धर्म के प्रति कट्टरता की शिक्षा
⭕क्रिश्चियन दिखाए बाइबिल और धर्मांतरण का मार्गतो हिंदू को क्यों ये अधिकार नहीं❓
वेद,उपनिषद का बांटे क्यों ज्ञान नही❓?यही है भेदभाव की चरम सीमा
आखिर किसलिए ये अधिकार छिना❓#आर्टिकल_30_हटाओ ✊?
देश को सुसंस्कारी बनाओं ? pic.twitter.com/3TGQ5WRJeb— || आर्यावर्त || (@Aryavrta) May 28, 2020
The conversation around this right-wing affiliated page revolves around a set pattern – anti-minority posts, calling for the revocation of Article 30, calling for acquittal of terror accused Sadhvi Pragya and rape accused Asaram Bapu among others, calling for an ordinance on population control and calling for religious conversions to be stopped.
The page uses defamatory and derogatory language against minorities and secular citizens, including secular media outlets, all in a bid to save the existence of Hindus.
If we examine these issues, for example, the call for the revocation of Article 30 and 30A.
संविधान की सांप्रदायिकता इस बात से समझ मे आती है की धारा 30A हिंदुओं को अपने धर्म की शिक्षा देने से रोकता है और इसके उलट धारा 30 मुसलमानों को अपने मजहब के प्रचार के लिए मदरसा बनाने की अनुमति देता है।क्या आप चाहते है की धारा 30A और 30 को संविधान से हटाया जाना चाहिए।.. pic.twitter.com/ezLgBt9LTm
— || आर्यावर्त || (@Aryavrta) March 3, 2020
To begin with, there is no Article 30A in the Indian Constitution. In the tweet, Aryavrat says that Article 30 deprives Hindus of the right to propagate and preach Hinduism in their educational institutions but bestows the same upon minority religions.
The minorities, as per the Gazette of India January 27, 2014 are Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains. Article 30 enables religious and linguistic minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice and ensures that the State doesn’t discriminate against such educational institutions managed by a minority in granting aid.
Jagran Josh reported that a Supreme Court decision delivered in the Secretary of Malankara Syrian Catholic College case (2007), the Honourable Supreme Court said that the right conferred to minority communities under Article 30 is only to ensure equality with the majority and not intended to place the minorities in a more advantageous position.
There is no evidence of unconstitutional favour of minorities regarding the general laws of the land relating to national security, national interest, public order, social welfare, taxation, health, sanitation, and morality, etc., applicable to all, will equally apply to minority institutions also.
With regards to the posts questioning Safoora Zargar’s bail and Sadhvi Pragya’s incarceration, it must be noted that Sadhvi Pragya is one of the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case but is now a BJP MP after being released on bail. Ironically, she is the MP of the same party which was in power when she was arrested for the said crime.
Talking about a population control ordinance, the page has continuously used derogatory language against minorities targeting them for being the reason behind the large population of India.
बेरोजगारी,गरीबी,कुपोषण,अपराधीकरण,
प्रदूषण की जड़ है जनसंख्या विस्फोट❗पर वोटबैंक की राजनीति के चलते आजतक #जनसंख्या_नियंत्रण_अध्यादेश नहीं❗
एक अब्बू के 10-15, इस्लाम कबूल या हिन्दू सफा❗इसाईधर्मान्तरण की फैलती आग❗
हिंदू जनसंख्या पर वज्रपात⁉️हम दो हमारे दो क्यों न सबके हों❓
— || आर्यावर्त || (@Aryavrta) July 9, 2020
However, the call for population control is not done with a genuine intention to ensure that everyone is economically taken care of by the State, but only with an agenda to save Hinduism from becoming non-existent.
Given the ideology, the page has also naturally called for the name of the country to be changed from India to Bharat, with the reason that India represents a time when the country was ruled by the British and Bharat asserts cultural dominance.
India-एक भोगौलिक उक्ति,गुलामी का नामकरण,आज़ादी की अपूर्णता❗
भारत- हमारी पहचान,गौरव,परंपरा,स्मृति,रीति, ज्ञान,बौद्धिक-सांस्कृतिक प्रभुत्व,स्वतंत्रता का अधिकार है??
तिरुअनंतपुरम,चेन्नई,मुम्बई,कोलकाता,बंगलुरू,ओडिसा… तो 72सालों में स्वनामधन्य #ByeByeIndiaOnlyBharat क्यों नहीं
— || आर्यावर्त || (@Aryavrta) June 2, 2020
With regards to the posts against religious conversion, it must be noted that according to the Census 2011, there are 87.46% Hindus, 7% Muslims and 4.91% Sikhs, making the Hindus a majority by a very wide margin. Hence the widely spread notion about the existence of Hindus being threatened is absolutely fake and not backed by facts. Also, the allegation of Hindu saints, especially the Palghar lynching incident, being targeted for their religion is also false since it was proven that the Palghar lynching incident had no communal background and was purely an outcome of misinformation.
Our take: The Aryavrta page continuously vilifies religious minorities by calling mosques and prestigious educational institutions, like the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), havens of terrorists. These allegations are absolutely unacceptable in a secular democracy and it is important that such pages be taken down from social media as they manipulate the masses without showing them necessary facts. The posts are rabidly communal and go against the tenet of secularism set in the Indian Constitution as it wants to assert the dominance of one religion over the others. It is important that social networking platforms use a more human approach to identify this soft communal hate approach before it leads to more vilification of minorities than it has already.
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