New Delhi: Large anti-muslim rallies were held in Delhi at Dwarka and Jantar Mantar with thousands of participants from the right wing Hindutva groups calling for a genocide of Muslims. These kinds of hateful gatherings and calls for genocide has to not just be condemned but fought with on grounds. Anti-muslim terror crimes have become a common occurrence and there is no contestation from the opposition.
Two separate incidents within a week in India’s capital have reaffirmed the secondary citizenship of Muslims in the country, with the situation worsening every day. The first incident surface due to the allocation of funds for the Huj House in Dwarka. The All Dwarka Residents Federation, in a letter signed on 3rd August 2021 by its secretary Advocate BP Vaishnav, said that the construction of the Huj House will cause disturbance in the “brotherhood, harmony, and peace in the society apart from the law and order” and cited “every possibility of riots, migration of Hindu and repetition of situation like Shaheen Bagh, Jaffrabad, and Kashmir”. Notwithstanding the fallacies in the examples where targets and victims were and have been Muslims themselves, various Hindutva groups organized a “Mahapanchayat” on Friday where Hindu men could be seen asking to raise Shastra (arms) and Shaastra (Holy Texts) to oppose the move lest “terrorists” take over the country.
The second incident occurred on Sunday, 8th August 2021, barely minutes away from the Parliament, where a gathering of about 5000 people openly called for the genocide of Muslims. Called by Supreme Court lawyer and former spokesperson of the Delhi unit of Bharatiya Janata Party Ashwini Upadhyay, “Jab mulle kaate jayenge, Ram-Ram chillayenge [Muslims will chant Ram-Ram when they will be slaughtered],” were among the various Islamophobic slogans shouted during the event.
Despite visual evidence of hatred and blatant flouting of covid guidelines, there has been no direct action from the police or executive against the organisers of these rallies. Registering an FIR against “unknown people” when the real perpetrators are known is nothing less than rendering institutional support to genocide enablers.
From anti-Muslim rallies to lynchings to pogroms, the Hindu supremacists enjoy impunity and state support, and complicit and implicit approval from the collective society. These vitriolic incidents are not, and should not be deemed to be, the doings of a fringe group or a subsection of Hindutva. These are the reflections of the society we are living in, where Muslims are at risk of losing their liberty, their rights, and their lives. The Islamophobia is propagated by those who either actively call for genocide, or passively lend support in the form of silence.
Fraternity Movement vehemently opposes these actions meant to intimidate, threaten, and mobilize hate crimes against Muslims, and calls for every authority, including the police, the judiciary, the civil society groups to raise their voice against blatant Islamophobia and calls for violence. We demand immediate legal action against Ashwini Upadhyay, Narsinghanand Saraswati, Gajendra Chauhan and Hindu terror mob for calling for Muslim Genocide in National Capital.