The petitioners claim that the respondents engage in illegal activities in the temple without permission from the appropriate authorities. The petitioners argue that the RSS and other members of the organization are using tobacco products on temple grounds, endangering the cleanliness, purity, and divinity of the sanctum. “The unpleasant smell emanating by the usage of the above products by the 6th and 7th respondents along with their henchmen is causing great discomfort to the devotees visiting the temple, especially senior citizens, women and children,” the plea stated, as reported by the LiveLaw.

Furthermore, the petitioners claimed that the respondents yelled loud slogans as part of their mass drill/weaponry training, disturbing the temple’s tranquil and serene ambience.

The petitioners also claimed that on March 30, 2021, the Devaswom Commissioner had issued a circular ordering all officers of the board involved to stop/prevent mass drills/weaponry training on the board’s premises. Following that, the petitioners filed a complaint with the temple’s Administrative Officer, but no action was taken, as provided by the LiveLaw.

It was further submitted that the Devaswom Commissioner issued another circular in unequivocal language demanding for strict enforcement of the previous circular, but violations continued, according to the petition.

The petitioners have thus asked the Court to hold the respondent authorities’ duty bound and responsible for ensuring that the temple and its premises are only used for devotional purposes and to protect the petitioners’ right to worship, which is guaranteed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

Hindutva outfits- firearm training, sword fighting and trident distribution

Far-right extremist and fascist outfits have been indulging in organizing various arms training camps, sword fight event and trident distribution event since many year all over India. Several reports have surfaced where RSS backed and related fringe outfits, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal, have been organising such illegal event and camps in different parts of the country, disguising them as self-defence activities for Hindus. It is essential to note that it’s not just the men who are trained in “self-defence”. Durga Vahini, another unit of the VHP, organises similar camps for women. 

In the beginning of June, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) had reported upon the military style parades being organised in Rajasthan, all of which were allowed by the Rajasthan police. As per the CJP’s report, out of the total of 33 districts in Rajasthan, in at least 13 districts the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad had been hyper active, organising their brand of Trishul Diksha Samaroh. In the last few months, multiple reports on such incidents have surfaced:

1. Chittorgarh, Rajasthan: On May 30, a video surfaced on Twitter whereby Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Durga Vahini had organized the firearm training for Hindu girls. In the video girls were seen donning an orange dupatta and firing from rifles at empty glass bottles and towards the end of the video the girls in training were seen chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’.
2. Jodhpur, Rajasthan: On May 26, a training session was organised by Durga Vahini, aimed at training young girls in self-defence and martial arts. In the video the girls can be seen using rifles, sticks as well as being taught martial arts. The representative of Durga Vahini, while speaking to the reporter of ABP Live, said that the training was being conducted in using sticks and rifles as well and that the training session would last for 7 days in Saraswati Vidya Mandir and was being imparted to 200 girls.
3. Shajapur, Madhya Pradesh: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Durga Vahini organised a weapons training camp for minor and young girls calling it “Shourya Prashikshan Varg” (Bravery training class) from May 7 to May 14.  It could be seen on the video that these young girls were given a rifle in their hands as well as long sticks and taught to fight with them on an open ground. This was organised on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hostel ground in Shujalpur and more than 500 girls were given the training.
4. Nagpur, Maharashtra: On May 2 and May 9, two trident distribution event were organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal extremist outfits, where the participants had owed allegiance to Hindutva. At these events, in addition to distribution of tridents amongst men, hate speeches where delivered exhorting Hindus to take up arms. In one of the hate speeches delivered here, the speaker had given openly giving calls for using the said trishuls to stop “love jihad” and religious conversions.
5. Multiple cities and districts, Rajasthan: A total of 7 incidents came to light in the month of April where tridents were distributed at events organised by Bajrang Dal and VHP.
6. Mount Abu, Rajasthan: A weapon training program was organised by the Bajrang Dal from April 13-15, 2023 known as the Rashtriya Shikshak Prashikshan Varg (National Teachers Training camp). Videos also surfaced from the camp, showing men getting trained in how to use a rifle. It was alleged that the training was being given under the leadership of far right leader and known hate offender Pravin Togadia.
7. Vadodara, Gujarat: On February 28, VHP and Bajrang Dal distributed trishuls to over 130 young men. Viral Desai, of VHP Southern Gujarat, while speaking to the media, said that the trishuls were distributed to Hindu men after giving them complete information about it and what is the necessity of a trishul in Hindu homes. The organisers further said that the young men were administered an oath to use the trishuls responsibly and to worship it at home and use it to protect Hindu society, women, cows and saints.

VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders have often said that Indian democracy “needs to be run by Hindu values, though all communities are welcome to live in India”. These Hindu extremist groups have an infamous track record of unleashing brutal violence against Muslims, and have been illegally conducting firearms training camps for their members across Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh states since many years. Giving weapons is the hands of those violent Hindu supremacists who have been threatening the minority community of Muslims with mass slaughter and genocide is a grave cause of concern.

Related:

Maharashtra: CJP files complaint with Nagpur police against two trishul distribution events, organised by Bajrang Dal & VHP

‘Trishul Diksha’ in poll bound Rajasthan, a matter of grave concern

“Protect religion, women and cows,” right wing groups tell the youth, hands them Trishuls

Arms training to minor and young girls in Madhya Pradesh

Arms training allegedly conducted by Bajrang Dal in Mount Abu

VHP leader promises free ‘licenses’ swords, knives and sticks after ‘training’

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Photo credit: Indian Express

While Donald Trump forges ahead to be the world’s most powerful CEO and then to keep the world’s Muslims from entering America, India’s own Sangh Parivar “trains” its young  saffron shirts to do one better—namely to prepare, rifle and lathi in hand, against our own Muslim Indians.

Last week saw a clutch of Bajrang Dal fasios in fierce drill to ward off possible attacks from an enemy who was represented as a man with a beard and wearing an unmistakable Muslim skull cap.

Noticeably, the target was not sporting either a Pakistani or an ISIL flag, leaving one in no doubt that Muslims in general and our own Muslims in particular were meant to be the enemy. Had the target been terrorists or terrorism, surely the additional symbols would have been imperative to the purpose of representation; and one might have expected to see not only saffronite warriors but perhaps a pluralist group of Indian citizens setting shoulder to the patriotic wheel.

When quizzed about the event — which has now thankfully drawn legal notice from the local authorities in Uttar Pradesh where elections are due in six to eight months (whereby hangs the true tale of the Sangh’s predictable resort to communal polarisation ahead of time) — spokespersons of the Parivar have been saying how routine an exercise such a thing is; after all, such “self-defensive” drills are habitually imparted in schools and colleges, don’t we know. 
 
Indeed we do, but in none of those habitual exercises is a bearded man with a skull cap shown to be the enemy. To put the matter starkly: suppose for a moment that such a drill were to be performed by some Madrassa-going young Muslims, showing the target to be a man with a vermillion mark on the forehead, what might the Sangh have said.

What clearly should have worried the mighty BJP-led government at the Centre is the inference that its own young satraps do not trust it to protect them from the Muslims of Ayodhya and Uttar Pradesh.  Not so; because more than you or I the mighty Central government knows for sure what these shenanigans are about and why they are necessary to the Sangh’s   burning desire to capture Uttar Pradesh, come the elections. Do remember that in the elections just concluded in five states, the BJP could only win one — a wholly expected change of government after a 15-year-long stint by the Congress in power. Much as that “victory” is sought to be peddled as a globe-shaking triumph, the reality is that the supposedly defunct Congress has won both a larger share of the vote across the five states, and a considerably larger number of Assembly seats. 

And the further bleak prospect of, in all likelihood, having no success in the forthcoming elections to the Punjab, Uttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh and, cuttingly, Gujarat Assemblies. Note that in the last state mentioned the Congress recently swept to victory in some 80 percent of seats in local elections.

Not having brought the least redress to the people at large, tall promises in the 2014 elections notwithstanding, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sangh that now rules it with an iron fist has one done-to-death recourse, namely, to give out the call for the “nationalistic” Hindu nation to keep the swarm of skull caps and beards at bay, or else all may be lost.

Fortunately, this wretchedly destructive gimmick has been yielding fewer and fewer dividends and it is to be hoped that the coming year will see a saner politics gather sufficient force to defeat the Sangh’s cynically divisive and potentially violent tactics — all of which, don’t we know, is marketed under the rubric of “nationalism.”

A hope must also go out to the United States of America that either Hillary Clinton or the inspiring Bernie Sanders will put paid to the Trumpet that blares doom for politics of reason and universal human values.

Look where you will, and the world seems to be teetering on the edge of that burning lake of fire. Do not forget either that 100,000 Jihadis worldwide remain committed to cast the rest of the recalcitrant world into that lake — a reality that can hardly be met through the politics of imitation.
 

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