The Virat Hindu Sabha organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) at Dilshad Garden in New Delhi on Sunday October 9 is fast turning out to be as controversial as the 2021 Haridwar Dharm Sansad. After a series of speeches made by political and hardline Hindutva spiritual leaders targeting the minority community went viral on social media, the Delhi Police had filed a First Information Report (FIR) under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code against the organisers, saying they had not sought proper permissions from the police.
But VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal has now shot down the police’s claims and was quoted by The Hindu as saying, “The FIR against us is laughable as several policemen were present at the venue. We had all the permissions.” Bansal further told NDTV, “Let alone permission, we fixed the venue at Ramleela Ground in Dilshad Garden after suggestion and recommendation from senior police officers. We earlier had planned to hold the gathering near Manish’s house but on the request of the police changed it to Ramlila Maidan.”
This suggests that the FIR is just an eyewash, especially given how police have not taken any action against any of the people who had made hate speeches at the venue. This despite the fact that videos of all these hate speeches have gone viral on social media.
The VHP by its own admission had organised the event in response to the killing of a man named Manish in Delhi’s Sunder Nagar area on October 1. According to the Indian Express, Manish was stabbed 20 times in the attack and his assailants have been identified as Sajid, Aalam, Bilal, Faizan, Mohsin and Shakir. Thus, their names clearly give away their religious identity. In its press release, the VHP also claimed Hindus had become a minority in the area, and that groups engaged in religious conversion were active there.
दिल्ली में हिंदू युवक मनीष की नृशंस हत्या के विरूद्ध हुई आक्रोश सभा की प्रेस विज्ञप्ति व इस सम्बंध में उपराज्यपाल को दिया गया ज्ञापन.. pic.twitter.com/9pajM3eBhy
— Vishva Hindu Parishad -VHP (@VHPDigital) October 9, 2022
Call for “complete boycott”
The first video to go viral was that of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, who, without naming the Muslim community, gave a call for their complete boycott, saying, “If you want to set their minds right, if you want to cure them, there is only one solution – complete boycott.”
Verma then went on to administer an oath of boycott: “We will boycott them completely. We will not buy anything from their shops and establishments. We will not pay them any wages.”
BJP MP Parvesh Verma orders the people of Delhi to financial boycott Muslims. Will @DelhiPolice act against this man for inciting hatred amongst communities? Does PM Modi condone this speech? Is this what BJP meant by Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas! Speak up @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/L8XtjlxbQB
— Dr. Shama Mohamed (@drshamamohd) October 9, 2022
When probed about the public call to boycott Muslims, Verma tried to dodge the allegation by saying he did not specifically name Muslims as a community. Verma told the Indian Express, “What I said was that the families whose members carry out such killings should be boycotted. Such families, if they run any restaurant or any business, should be boycotted. There have been such crimes in my area also. And in such cases, their business should be boycotted.”
Open calls for violence, advice to bear arms
At the same event, Yogeshwar Acharya, a spiritual leader who goes by the title “Jagat Guru”, referred to the same murder case and said, “The inhuman killing of Manish… The (Delhi) government wants such terrorists and Ma***chas (a derogatory word for Muslims) to engage in such brutal killings.” Taking a dig at the Muslim population he said, “They have not one, but many children. They want to marry 14 times and have 40 children.” He then gave an open call for genocide saying, “We should target and kill them.”
राजधानी दिल्ली में VHP की रैली में मुसलमानों के नरसंहार की अपील
योगेश्वर आचार्य ने लोग़ों को मुसलमानों को मारने के लिए उकसाया pic.twitter.com/ExOQaBI0Dl
— Bolta Hindustan (@BoltaHindustan) October 9, 2022
Indian Express further quoted him as saying, “Agar aise log humare mandiro… ko ungli dikhayee, unka ungli mat kaato, unka haath kaato. Agar zarurat pade, to unka gala bhi kaat do. Kya hoga? Ek ko phaansi hogi, do ko phaansi hogi…Hum sab bhi iska dhyan de… inko chun chun ke marne ka kaam karen.” (Translation: If such people point fingers at our temple, don’t just chop off the fingers, chop off their hands. If need be, slit their necks. What’s the worst that can happen? A few people will be hanged. We should be mindful, target them and kill them.)
Following the event, when media persons confronted him, Acharya appeared to defend his comments. Indian Express quoted him as saying, “Main baar baar kahunga iske liye… sanatan dharam ke liye phaansi chadne ke liye tayaar hoon.” (Translation: I will say this repeatedly, I am prepared to be hanged for Sanatan Dharma.)
Another hardline Hindutva leader Mahant Nawal Kishore Das urged Hindus to bear arms. According to India Today, he said, “Get guns. Get licenses. If you don’t get a license, don’t worry. Those who come to kill you, do they have licenses? So why do you need a license?” He went on to declare, “If we all come together, even the Delhi Police Commissioner will offer us tea and let us do what we want.”
Admission of role in North East Delhi riots?
Then there was Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Nand Kishore Gurjar, who first made disparaging remarks about Muslims, saying, “A pig named Akhlaq, who killed cows, was killed in Dadri. Then everyone from Rahul Gandhi to Akhilesh (Yadav) and Arvind Kejriwal cry as if their son-in-law has been killed.”
“Dadri mein ek suar maara jaata hai gaay kaatne waala Akhlaq toh Rahul Gandhi se lekar Akhilesh aur Arvind Kejriwal aise rote hain jaise inka damaad mar gaya ho” –BJP MLA Nand Kishore Gurjar in Virat Hindu Sabha in Delhi today
Muslims are dehumanised even after they are lynched. pic.twitter.com/1DGuTnGdb9
— Kaushik Raj (@kaushikrj6) October 9, 2022
Gurjar was referrering to Mohammed Akhlaq who had been lynched by a mob in a village in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, on the suspicion of slaughtering a cow and eating beef in September 2015.
Another, even more disturbing excerpt of his speech became public when another video went viral. In this video, Gurjar appears to have virtually admitted to being involved in the February 2020 North East Delhi riots. He is seen and heard saying, “There were riots about CAA in Delhi. These “jihadis” started killing Hindus. That’s when you people let us in. We were accused of bringing in 2.5 lakh people into Delhi. We were trying to make them understand, but the police filed a case against us for killing “jihadis”. We will kill “Jihadis”. We will always kill them.”
BJP MLA Nand Kishore Gujjar openly admits his participation in Delhi mass violence!
Would BJP dare to take any action on him? ? pic.twitter.com/yE7YXqxggB
— YSR (@ysathishreddy) October 9, 2022
Any kind of speech that incites ill-will, hate or violence against any targeted group is deemed hate speech. Therefore, these open calls for boycott and violence clearly constitute hate speech. However, apart from the flimsy FIR, the police have taken no action against any of the people mentioned above. What’s more, even the VHP, or high-ranking members of the regime that sees the VHP as its ideological parent, have not put out any statements, not even a token rebuke aimed at the hate speech makers so far. Even in the Dharm Sansad case, the wheels of justice have been turning slowly, with FIRs lodged only after sustained pressure by activists and civil society groups. It remains to be seen if any of the hate speech makers at the Virat Hindu Sabha will be brought to justice.
Related:
BJP MP Parvesh Verma calls for total boycott of a particular community
Hardline Hindutva leaders give call to bear weapons, chop off hands, heads of minorities