Image Courtesy: Facebook
The brutal lynching of three men in Palghar amid the lockdown has frayed many nerves. Even though the police and state government authorities in Maharashtra have begun their investigation and ruled out a communal angle in the matter, there are some like Suraj Tiwari, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal District Security Head from Lucknow, who are hell bent on blaming the minorities for the incident.
The video likely comes after hate monger journalist Arnab Goswami who communalized the whole incident of the killings of the two men by doing a whole show revolving around the theme “Santon ki hatya par sannata kyun? (why the silence over the killings of Hindu priests?)” Arnab took the matter to another level by revolving the show around Hindustan and Hindus and why Hindus and the media and the Opposition was silent about these killings.
Since when did the journalist get a right to if not sound, but insinuate verdicts against other communities and become judge, jury and executioner?
Suraj Tiwari is a repeated hate offender and one look through his Facebook profile will aptly demonstrate his hatred towards minorities, secular Hindus, the police and even some politicians – basically everyone who is stopping him and people like him from taking law into his own hands and unleashing death upon everyone who opposes Hindutva.
Hence the connection between Arnab and Tiwari – Arnab’s rant, not journalism, probably inspired Tiwari to post one more of his own.
Identifying as a ‘kattar Hindu’ (harcore Hindu), most of his recent posts are laced with expletives against minorities and secular people who he thinks are the worst danger to Hindutva.
In light of the Palghar incident, in his most recent video, apart from invoking the Hindutva sentiment in his Hindu brothers to take to the street after the lockdown ends on May 3 and protest against the killings of the two sadhus who were mercilessly killed.
In his video, with a sword in his hand, he seems lost for words, not enraged, but just as if he’s putting up a show to garner views for his own selfish need. And he has accomplished it with over 1.4 million views, 58 thousand likes, 53 thousand comments and 67 thousand shares.
The video titled – “People who kill on seeing saffron, the day we see your (skull) caps and start killing you, even the burqa will fall short of saving you,” along with the hashtag #जिहादी_आतंक shows him saying that Hindutva followers are self-sufficient and need no help from the police or politicians to tell them what to saying. He says that Hindus have to save themselves and move over from lighting incense sticks and candles (a reference to PM Modi’s recent task to show solidarity). Moreover, what is alarming is that he has asked people to come to the streets, ignoring social distancing norms and not caring about law and order.
In another video, put up on April 19, he said it was necessary to keep an eye on people who wore (skull) caps, targeting minorities. He said he has also made a list of secular Hindus who need to be brought to task and has asked his followers to do the same because there will be an inquiry against them. Going by his video and language, it seems like he’s more eager for an execution than an inquiry.
Targeting Muslims, he says that they will know the power of a ‘kattar Hindu’ the day they come face-to-face with one. He said they would never win over Hindus, adding that their ‘main target’ was secular Hindus. Saying that Muslims were only spreading jihad and creating an illusion of brotherhood, he mentioned that Muslims had brothers only in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and not in India. He has threatened secular Hindus saying that the day he meets one and that person speaks of Hindu-Muslim unity, he would cut him up in half!
He added that the coronavirus wasn’t that big of a challenge to India as jamaatis were, referring to members of the Muslim community who attended the Tablighi Jamaat and were solely demonized by the right-wing affiliate media for the spike in coronavirus cases in the country.
His sentiments against Muslims and secularists are portrayed in photos he has uploaded on his page.
There are too many photos and too many videos of this sword brandishing, expletive hurling hateful man targeting the minorities and secular Hindus for something they did not do. The danger lies in Tiwari’s popular following on social media and a possible network he might have created on the down-low that. A network where members will be ready with swords and guns at Tiwari’s one call to take to the streets and slit open the throats of everyone they deem to be a threat to Hindutva.
It is appalling that Tiwari’s profile hasn’t been taken down by Facebook for violation of hate speech guidelines. We are sure that the police too know about Tiwari’s antics, but we fail to understand why he hasn’t been booked for the same.
India is a secular country where all religions are striving to live in unity despite the forces of hatred like Tiwari. It is highly likely that Tiwari won’t be brought to task because of the considerable clout he holds, but until that happens, there is also a high chance of a repeat of the communal violence that took place in Delhi in February this year. And if that happens, there will be double the bloodshed, because Tiwari doesn’t just want to target the minorities, but more so wants to teach secularists a lesson.
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