The mob violence raging across Delhi since February 23 now appears to have been carefully fuelled and nurtured using social media. As homes, shops, vehicles and even grandmothers went up in flames, with the Delhi Police doing little to contain the carnage, Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp were flooded with videos of men and women calling for violence in the name of religion.
The toll in the violence has crossed 40 and more than 200 people have been injured. The matter had been taken to the Delhi High Court and on February 26, the Justice S Muralidhar had questioned the police as to why there had been no FIRs lodged against leaders of the ruling party for their inflammatory speeches. He had said, “You showed alacrity in lodging FIRs for arson, why aren’t you showing the same for registering FIR for these speeches?” Interestingly, shortly after he was shunted out, the next bench hearing the same case granted the police a month’s time to deal with the matter of filing FIRs.
While Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma have become the poster bys for hate speech, Mishra being blamed as the immediate trigger for the Delhi violence, there has been a network of right-wing elements slowly spreading hate through social media. With followers in thousands and lakhs, there are some people who are openly calling for violence against minorities.
One such woman is Ragni Tiwari. A ‘dharmyodha’ as she calls herself, she is a member of the Rashtriya Azad Manch. Her profile on Facebook which contains incendiary videos and rants against the minorities. At the heart of the Delhi violence, she is seen mobilizing people to come and fight against those of the minority religion. She makes no bones about being a Hinduvadi. In one video she is seen blocking a road in Jafrabad in retaliation to the Shaheen Bagh protest, not allowing people or vehicles to go through. During the heat of the Delhi violence, she is seen abusing the Delhi police for their inaction against the rioters whom she claims to be Muslims.
February 23, 2020 – https://www.facebook.com/ragni.kumari.984/videos/2511352835802497/
February 24, 2020 –
A post on who she thinks is a terrorist – spreading open hatred against minorities.
Ragni Tiwari has allegedly called for Hindus to sacrifice themselves to save the nation. Using abusive diatribe against the minorities, she had also asked people to vote in the name of religion to save the country.
https://www.facebook.com/
Her profile shows her affiliation with a man who called for retaliation by Hindus, Deepak Singh Hindu. Taking a leaf out of Kapil Mishra’s playbook, he had allegedly called a mob to gather at Maujpur, an area in the middle of the violence.
February 23, 2020 –
Deepak Singh Hindu was placed under house arrest on February 23, 2020 by the Delhi police. There, the police is seen sitting comfortably in his presence and Deepak Singh is seen using the mobile phone and having a freewheeling chat with the officers.
https://www.facebook.com/
His political affiliations reflect a bigger nexus and a thought process that has trickled down from the staunch right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent organization of the BJP of which he too was a member.
Another blatant call showing the persecution of religious minorities in this secular country has come from Ragini’s other contact, Kunwar Mohit Rana. Not shying away from his Hindutva ideology, he called to save Delhi Hindus and for the Muslims to leave the country post the violence in Delhi.
Going by the moniker Kattar Hindu, Brajendra Patel too is part of the posse that has been inciting hate against the Muslims, evoking previous memories of communal violence against the community.
In support of the CAA-NPR-NRC, Patel’s abusive words are a thinly veiled threat to those protesting against the draconian Act, especially the women protesters at Shaheen Bagh.
From BJP’s own cadre, T Raja Singh, the MLA from Goshamahal, Telangana. He had earlier called on the ruling party to allow Hindus to freely use AK 47 guns without the fear of being arrested, insinuating that they get the freedom to eliminate Muslims.
The list goes on. There are thousands of such posts that call for violence against the minorities and for the protection and making of a Hindu Rashtra. Why the police is not cracking down on these hate offenders is a mystery, especially when they know these elements are operating a terror network in the country that intends to wipe out the minorities and the marginalized.
The police, the ruling party leaders, along with their parent organization, the RSS all appear to be hand-in-glove with each other and are recruiting such elements who are propagating hate through social media channels. With followers in thousands, the ideology of these radical elements has seeped into the minds of impressionable youth brought up in homes where discrimination and hate are a part of everyday life.
It is very reminiscent of Hitler’s ideology and going by what evidence is available, it is apparent that the carefully orchestrated Delhi violence wasn’t just about the protests revolving the CAA-NPR-NRC, but about ethnic cleansing – the ideology of ridding India the ‘impure’ race, religion and people that don’t belong to it.
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