As people wait in anxiety over election results of Rajasthan, SabrangIndia team has got hold of hate filled pamphlets that did rounds of the area before the elections in order to consolidate ‘Hindu’ votes.
The pamphlet that has been issued by one “Matdata Jagaran Manch- Chittaud Vibhag”, calls for keeping a ‘Rashtriya Drushtikon’ (nationalist perspective) while voting.
It goes on to say that Bharat can’t be defeated, it can be broken from inside.
In a section titled politics of myth, the pamphlet says that it’s a myth that Ram and Krishna are imaginary characters and that Aryans had come to India from outside. Equating Aryans with Hindus, it goes to say that it’s a myth that this country is not one for Hindus.
In another section titled “politics of human-rights” it points out to a few incidents:
It says that slogans meant to “break the nation” were raised in universities in Delhi and Hyderabad.
It condemns the criticism of human rights groups to pellet guns. In this section it also condemns the opposition to death penalty to those like Afzal Guru and Yakub Memon.
The rest of the pamphlet is similarly filled with hate filled and myth making rhetoric and aims to incite hatred and violence.
It calls for a “decisive war” in which the “Hindu society” will fight the forces attacking the nation, the forces in question here are human rights and student activists.
The pamphlet also accuses human rights activists to play the politics of separatism and says that forces are creating the situation of a civil war inside the country. It names Jignesh Mevani, Hardik Patel, Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar as part of ‘Tukde tukde gang’.
On the one hand, Rajasthan is struggling with instances of cow vigilantism and a growing pattern of extortion in the name of cow protection, on the other such pamphlets are being used to meet political aspirations and consolidating votes. Rajasthan has still not recovered from the lynching of Rakbar Khan on July 21. At the same time development issues such as employment opportunities for youth plague the state. The pamphlet is clearly full of nationalist and hate filled rhetoric and should be taken seriously by local groups working in the area.