How is the Assam gov't allowing Pravin Togadia’s trishul distribution?

anti-muslim
Image Courtesy: Twitter

Pravin Togadia, surgeon-turned-Hindutva leader, president of Antarashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP), is on a mission to weaponize the peace loving citizens of Assam. He has been frequenting the state, and as the latest video now circulating on social media and Whatsapp groups shows, has been personally making innocent people of Assam, repeat an anti-Muslim ‘oath’ after him in Hindi, while holding sharp trishuls (traditional Indian tridents).

Togadia and his team have been openly distributing these weapons and encouraging people that this makes them “brave”, and that once armed like this, they become “protectors of the Hindu faith”. After the AHP’s Gujarat “Trishul Diksha” where they distributed thousands of swords and tridents to the people, went off without any interference from the authorities, they set their eyes on Assam, another Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governed state.

In teh video, Togadia can be seen sporting a traditional gamusa (scarf) of the state, and leading an oath, “Hum veer hain. Vijay prapt karenge. Hum maa Kamakhya devi, mahamaya kanthika devi. Bhagwan Shankar ka trishul dharan karke sankalp karte hain ki, loktantrik, kanooni padhyati se 50 lakh Bangladeshi Musalmano ko Bangladesh bhej kar hi dum lenge. Hum desh mein 2 crore, Assam mein 5 lakh yuvaon ko trishul dharan karvake, Assam ke veeron ko vijayta banayenge.” Translated, this is an anti-Muslim oath, in the garb of being anti-Bangladeshi-Muslim vow. He invoked gods and goddesses to convince the people that the trident is a ‘divine’ weapon, and encouraged them rest only after they “deport 50 Lakh Bangladeshi Muslims, back to Bangladesh”.

He uses the term “we” to signify that he is with the people of Assam who do this for him, and tries to water down this call for violence adding that this “chasing away Muslims”, should be done in a ‘democratic and legal way’. He does not have any powers to issue such an oath or dictat, and yet has the confidence that the law will not catch up with him here either. He then repeats his plan that he and his group are in the process of giving weapons to “2 Crore Indians” and “5 lakh in Assam”. Togadia may just have announced an ‘ethic cleansing’ drive, even though he has chosen his words carefully, throwing ‘religion’ and ‘bravery’ into the dangerous mix.

Pravin Todagia latest trishul oath has been shared widely on social media:

Hindu extremist leader Pravin Togadia says that he will distribute weapons (Trident) to 20 million Hindus. pic.twitter.com/1G2JlG3uZI
— HindutvaWatch (@HindutvaWatchIn) April 24, 2022

But this instance is not new. Pravin Togadia was in Assam, making anti-Muslim statements on April 6, in Golokganj, Dhubri district where he claimed that Dhubri now has only “20% Hindus” and 12 Lakh Muslims have come here from Bangladesh. He demanded that the DNA test of Muslim migrants who came here after 1951, be done by the State Government, and those who ‘fail’ should be sent to detention camps. He applauded Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for “freeing Assam’s land from illegal Bangladeshi encroachers” and asked him to “detected, isolate and deport” illegal migrants claiming that “illegal infiltrators” were living freely in Assam. He went on to suggest if “Bangladesh did not take back the illegal foreigners, India must capture an area of Bangladesh!”

Pravin Togadia is well on his way to revive his 2000’s agenda of militarising Hindu society. The process was documented and analysed by Communalism Combat in 2001 around the time when the Bajrang Dal had undertaken countrywide Trishul Diksha Samarohs. The Bajrang Dal’s trishuls were, “Rampuri knives that can kill, specially crafted to look like a religious symbol”. The original piece may be read here. In 2016, the Bajrang Dal started training its cadres in Uttar Pradesh to use rifles, swords and lathis ostensibly to “protect Hindus”. Now Assam is their top target.