VHP member claims he cancelled cab because driver was Muslim
Date: 22 April 2018
Category: Discrimination
Abhishek Mishra, who claims to be linked to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, kicked up a Twitter storm by tweeting that he had cancelled a cab ride because the driver turned out to be Muslim. Mishra is followed on Twitter by leading members of the NDA government, including union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan and Mahesh Sharma. On April 20, he announced that he cancelled the cab because he did not want to give money to “jihadi people”. He enclosed a screenshot of the cancellation, which showed the driver’s name- Masood Alam. While some on Twitter asked Ola to ban Mishra, many others pointed out that he was an SM consultant for the UP government’s Ministry of Transport. According to Mishra’s Facebook profile, he is an active member of both VHP and Bajrang Dal - both affiliated to RSS- and “holds responsibility” for the IT cell of VHP.
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OpIndia article claiming temple was forcibly occupied by Muslim mob found to be incorrect
Date: 6 March 2020
Category: Hate Speech
On February 27, Hindu nationalist blog OpIndia published a “ground report” on the riots in North East Delhi, claiming that a temple was “forcibly occupied” and “attacked” by “frenzied Islamist fundamentalists”. The article was shared by BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya, and retweeted by the Twitter handle of BJP Assam. R Jagannathan, the editorial director of Swarajya, also retweeted the piece.The “ground report” claimed to concern itself with a temple in Chand Bagh — while discussing a temple that is actually in Moonga Nagar. On February 28, OpIndia published a second article on this temple, basing it on tweets by two journalists with the rightwing website Swarajya. This time, it rightly claimed that the temple is in Moonga Nagar, but did not hyperlink it back to its Chand Bagh piece, giving the impression that there are two different temples in North East Delhi that were “desecrated”. The report claimed that a Muslim mob climbed onto the roof of a Shiv temple in Chand Bagh, captured the temple, allegedly vandalised the temple and the mob stone-pelted on the Hindus from the temple terrace. The second article went even further, claiming that the “incessant attack on the temple structure had rendered the entire edifice rickety and tottering, on the verge of collapse”. Neither OpIndia nor Swarajya had statements from the temple priest Sharma, who later told Newslaundry that no one climbed the terrace of the temple building. Sharma and his family live on this terrace. "There was no attack inside the temple. Nobody came here nor did they break anything. All our idols are fine. They have not been harmed.”
Sources:
https://twitter.com/OpIndia_com/status/1234742806767456256
https://www.opindia.com/2020/02/delhi-chand-bagh-riots-islamists-occupy-shiv-mandir-hurl-stones/
Opindia communalizes Bihar boy’s death
Date: 20/3/2020
Category:Hate speech
After the body of a minor boy was found floating in the river at Bela Dih village in Bihar’s Gopalganj, Hindu nationalist website OpIndia claimed that it was a case of “human sacrifice” to make a mosque in the area “powerful and influential”. The report came almost a month after the boy’s death, after the police had arrested five people in connection with the case. Gopalganj police registered an FIR against OpIndia as well as a local website Khabar Tak. Published on May 9, the report makes some sensational claims referencing the victim’s father Rajesh Jaiswal, and with no reference to the actual FIR which had already been filed in the case. OpIndia quotes Rajesh as alleging that his son was taken to a mosque, killed as a “human sacrifice”, and dumped in the river. A new mosque is being built in Bela Dih. The village’s Muslims were rumoured to have been talking about sacrificing a Hindu person in the mosque to make it “powerful and influential”. The report also initially claimed that the boys who came to fetch Rohit were all Muslim. They took him to the mosque where their relatives killed him. However, the postmortem report clearly states Rohit’s cause of death as “asphyxia due to drowning”. The victim had no external injury or trauma on the neck to signify choking. The possibility of the body being dumped in the water after being murdered elsewhere is minuscule. The boy’s father also later retracted his claim that his son was killed in the mosque for a human sacrifice, stating that he had been too upset when he spoke to Opindia. Moreover, the FIR names five Muslim boys and one Hindu. The boy is believed to have drowned while swimming, and his friends had run away because they were too afraid to tell anyone about it.
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Man who hacked Muslim man to death gets ticket to contest Lok Sabha elections
Date: 27 March 2019
Category: Hate violence
Shambhu Lal Regar, the man who allegedly hacked a Muslim man to death in 2017 on camera to “save a girl from love jihad”, received a ticket from Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena to contest the Lok Sabha electios from the Rampur constituency. Regar had hacked a man named Mohd Afrazul and later burnt him, reportedly after the latter suspected that Afrazul was in a relationship with a Hindu woman. The act was filmed and the videos of the murder as well as Regar justifying it went viral on social media. His popularity soared, and some people even took out tableaus in his honor. Police later confirmed that he had been acting out of personal jealousy, but had raised the bogey of “love jihad” to hide his real motive. The UPNS also fielded Hari Om Sisodia, one of the 19 main accused in the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri in September 2015
Sources:
Muslim boy and dalit girl goes out for pizza, held by police under “love jihad” law
Date: 23 December 2020
Category: Discrimination
A Muslim boy and his former classmate, who is a 16-year-old dalit girl, was held by UP Police while returning from an outing together under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance 2020. He was booked for allegedly “inducing” the minor girl to elope with him with the intention to marry and forcefully change her religion, with the FIR purportedly based on a complaint filed by her father, a farmer in Berkheda village in western UP district. However, the father of the girl accused the local police of dictating the complaint to him and “blowing the episode out of proportion”. He denied that his daughter tried to elope, while the girl insists the boy never discussed marriage or conversion with her. Apart from the illegal conversion law, police have booked Sonu on charges of abduction and under sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.While the father’s complaint, accessed by media, doesn’t mention any sexual assault, the police have defended the case, citing the girl’s age to claim that his intentions were amiss. They have also denied the allegation that they dictated the complaint to the father.
Sources:
https://www.thequint.com/news/india/muslim-teen-booked-under-anti-conversion-law-in-up-after-outing
Muslim lawyer imprisoned in Delhi violence case face abuse, discrimination in jail
Date: 23 December 2020
Category: Hate violence
Former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan alleged in court that she was beaten brutally by inmates of the Mandoli jail where she is lodged and continues to face harassment in prison. Advocate Rizwan, appearing for co-accused and suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain has claimed that most of the accused in the north-east Delhi riots cases were facing discrimination in prison, either by the inmates or jail authorities. He further alleged that the accused – among whom the most well known are Muslims – have been declared as “terrorists” before conclusion of the trial. “This is the second incident in a month. In the morning today at 6:30 am, they (inmates) beat me badly and abused me verbally. One of the inmates even slit her hand so that I am punished on a false complaint...They keep calling me a terrorist,” Jahan alleged, making submissions directly to the court. “There are two ladies in her prison cell who beat her up today. While she was offering her morning prayers, they objected to it and started abusing her and beating her,” advocate Pradeep Teotia, appearing for Jahan, alleged. Jahan further said she was suffering from serious medical conditions for which she has not been taken to a hospital, nor were any tests conducted.
Sources:
https://thewire.in/rights/ishrat-jahan-mandoli-jail-delhi-riots-accused-tanveer-malik
Old video of BJP WB chief being heckled revived with false anti-Rohingya narrative
Date: 22 December 2020
Category: Hate speech
An old video of West Bengal state president of BJP Dilip Ghosh being chased by members of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha was circulated again on social media, this time with the caption that Rohingyan Muslim refugees had attacked the party chief. The video was shared on Twitter with captions such as “What is happening with Hindus in West Bengal? Rohingyas residing there do not let any Hindu enter their slums? If we are not aware during elections, this condition will be mirrored in the entire country?” and “Rohingya Muslims push out Hindus from West Bengal.” The same video had gone viral in 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections as well as in Bihar, ahead of the state assembly elections in 2020. One accompanying tweet read- “Please send this video to your relatives who are residing in a poll-bound state. If our society doesn’t come out in huge numbers for Modi then these heretics, “Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims”, will repeat this act across the country, as they did in Kolkata. There’s still some time left, wake up.” However, fact-checking website AltNews confirmed that the video was from 2017 and had taken place in Darjeeling, not Kolkata. Ghosh had been thrashed by supporters of Gorkha Territorial Administration’s chairman Binay Tamang. West Bengal assembly election is scheduled to be held in 2021.
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False ‘love jihad’ angle added to video of man attacking woman with machete
Date: 24 December 2020
Category: Hate speech: Digital
A video of a man attacking a woman with a machete in broad daylight, viral on social media with the claim that a Muslim boy attacked his lover, Asha, (Hindu girl) for ending her relationship with the man, has proven to be incorrect. The video is shared with the caption, "Karnataka, Hubballi Deshpande Nagar, Hindu girl Asha Love refuses to be a victim of the jihad conspiracy. Then Muslim Mohammed Ismail attacked the girl with a sword. The girl is admitted to the hospital. The condition of the girl is very bad." The post was shared by many Twitter profiles, and a Website HinduPost published the news on their website on December 21, 2020. The Logical Indian spoke to SK Holeyannavar, inspector of Hubballi Suburban police station, who said that there was no communal angle in the story. He said, " Both the girl and the boy are of the same community. As the girl denied to be in a relationship with the guy he thrashed her." He also said that Asha's father's name is Dawal Saab Dhobi and mother's name is Bibi Jaan and they are Muslims.
Sources:
https://thelogicalindian.com/fact-check/love-jihad-25661
Movie denied Censor Board approval because of “JNU, Kashmir themes”
Date: 27 December 2020
Category: Discrimination
A Malayalam movie titled ‘Varthamanam’, which reportedly touches upon topics such as the agitation at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kashmir and atrocities against dalits and Muslims, was denied permission for public screening by the Trivandrum Regional Censor Board. According to a tweet by Board member Advocate V Sandeep Kumar, who is also the state vice president of BJP SC Morcha in Kerala, the film was denied permission because they felt the content was “anti-national”, particularly as it was written and produced by Aaryadan Shoukath. The tweet in Malayalam, which was later deleted, read: “Watched the movie ‘Varthamanam’ as a Censor Board member. The topic was atrocities against dalits and Muslims in the JNU issue. I objected to this because the movie was written and produced by Aryadan Shoukath. The theme of the movie was definitely anti-national”. Several Sangh Parivar members came out in support of the tweet. It is rare for a member to put out public comments on a movie screened before the Board. The movie was sent to the revising committee in Mumbai for further analysis.
Sources:
Lok Sabha passes Citizenship Amendment Bill
Date: 9 December 2019
Category: Discrimination
The Lok Sabha on 9 December passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) that seeks to give citizenship to refugees from the Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh and Zoroastrian communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The Bill was passed 311-80 with zero abstentions, after the Opposition put up a spirited attack against it. Several amendments introduced by Opposition members, including one by Shiv Sena MP, were defeated either by voice vote or by a division. According to the proposed legislation, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014 and facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants and will be given Indian citizenship. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi called the bill a violation of rights of the country's people and said Shah will be remembered in the league of Hitler. "I appeal to you (Speaker), save the country from such a law and save Home Minister also otherwise like in Nuremberg race laws and Israel's citizenship act, Home Minister's name will be featured with Hitler and David Ben-Gurion," said Owaisi.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuUEgznCLQk
VHP requests 'love jihad' law in National Capital
Date: 26 December 2020
Category: Discrimination
In a letter to Delhi LG Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad requested the government to bring a law against 'Love Jihad' in the national capital. Citing a rise in cases of conversion under the pretext of marriage or concealing true identities, the Hindu body pitched to Delhi to roll out an anti-Love Jihad law to prevent this. This came shortly after Madhya Pradesh became the latest state to pass an anti-Love Jihad Law. The state cabinet approved the 'MP Freedom to Religion Bill, 2020' nullifying the Dharma Swatantrya Adhiniyam law of 1968. The bill aims to prevent conversion by marriage. In addition, the bill also seeks to prohibit religious conversion by financial 'allurement', fraudulent, and forceful means.
Sources:
https://twitter.com/vinod_bansal/status/1342781395899473920
Mumbai cab driver beaten up by unknown assailants
Date: 24 December 2020
Category: Hate violence: Physical
A Muslim cab driver alleged he was beaten up and his beard grabbed by unknown assailants in an interior part of Badlapur. Saeed Ansari, who had gone to drop a passenger, was looking for a mosque for his afternoon namaz. But the mosque he found online was closed, and as he was about to turn back, his car was blocked by men on two bikes. They asked him what he was doing there, and when he replied that he was looking for a mosque, they snatched his possessions, including his wallet, mobile phone and car keys. More people joined the group till the crowd grew to about six or eight people and they started beating him up. Ansari tried to explain that he was there on a cab fare and that they could check with the cab company. But they refused to listen and continued to hit him. They grabbed his beard and asked him never to return to the area. Ansari kept asking them what he had done wrong and tried to show them his ID, but they did not listen. “They only beat me up because I am Muslim” Ansari said. As he was walking away, some of his possessions were reportedly returned to him. Under a Twitter post reporting the incident, the official handle of Thane City Police asked for the area and phone number of the victim.
Source:
https://twitter.com/faizan0008/status/1342038169240236033?s=08
UP govt tries to withdraw case against BJP leaders for anti-Muslim speeches
Date: 24 December 2020
Category: Hate violence
The Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is attempting to withdraw a case against Bharatiya Janata Party leaders accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots, Indian Express reported. Three of the leaders are MLAs against whom a case was registered alleging that they had made inflammatory speeches that aided the eventual violence in the district in September 2013. The speeches were made at a ‘mahapanchayat’ at Nagla Mandor village, organised by members of the Jat community to discuss the issue of two Hindu men having been lynched by a Muslim mob soon after they had killed a Muslim youth. In the violence that followed, more than 60 people were killed and over 40,000 rendered homeless. The government at that time was led by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. The particular case the Adityanath government is seeking to withdraw was filed at the Shikheda police station against Sardhana MLA Sangeet Som, Thana Bhawan MLA Suresh Rana and Muzaffarnagar Sadar MLA Kapil Dev. One Sadhvi Prachi, a Hindutva leader, is also an accused in this case, in addition to 36 others. Since Adityanath has come to power, he has attempted to remove cases registered by state police against BJP leaders. In 2018, Muzaffarnagar district authorities, in response to two letters from the Uttar Pradesh department of justice, advocated against the withdrawal of 10 such cases citing the fact that the court has already taken cognisance of the accused after charge sheets were filed by the police and the special investigation team. In the two letters, the Uttar Pradesh department of justice had sought information on 13 points, including whether the cases – including the one mentioned above – could be withdrawn in public interest. In 2018, The Wire had noted in a report, “The cases against these BJP leaders have been moving extremely slowly. Most of them have failed to appear in court, forcing additional chief judicial magistrate of Muzaffarnagar Madhu Gupta to issue non-bailable warrant against them.”
Sources:
https://thewire.in/government/muzaffarnagar-riots-adityanath-withdraw-cases-sanjeev-balyan
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/muzaffarnagar-riots-bjp-mla-up-7117491/
https://thewire.in/communalism/adityanath-up-government-muzaffarnagar-cases-withdrawal-bjp
Newspaper calls Indian American Muslim Council ‘anti-Hindu Islamist Group’
Date: 7 December 2020
Category: Slander
The Indian American Muslim Council, a US-based advocacy group of Indian American Muslims, put out a strongly worded response against a Newsweek article that termed the organization an ‘anti-Hindu Islamist group with alleged ties to SIMI, a banned terror organization in India.’ In its response, the IAMC made it clear that it was not anti-Hindu, not an Islamist group & has no ties to SIMI. It pointed out that “IAMC has wide acceptability in the US Congress, US admin & global civil society. A registered 501(c)3 founded in 2002 and having 17 chapters and thousands of members across the US. IAMC is a rights-based advocacy organization that champions Constitutional and democratic values of freedom, justice and peace both in the US and India.” It also pointed out that the author of the article was associated with Middle East Forum, an organization which has been widely called out for its Islamophobic stance.
Sources:
https://twitter.com/IAMCouncil/status/1342577835454685184
https://www.newsweek.com/covid-relief-funds-went-violent-extremists-opinion-1552485
Office of advocate fighting for Delhi violence victims raided
Date: 25 December 2020
Category: Discrimination
The Nizamuddin office of advocate Mehmood Pracha, who has been fighting several cases to bring justice to victims of the 2020 Delhi riots, was raided by a unit of Delhi Police. Pracha reacted that the raids had been conducted at the behest of Union home minister Amit Shah. Pracha alleged that he has been trying to establish Shah’s links with the violence. He also claimed that the police had been forcing many Muslim victims to withdraw their complaints and that a forcibly extracted statement under section 164 from a complainant was being used to target him. Pracha said that during the raid, a team of the Delhi Police Special Cell made a copy of the data from his computer. “They had brought specialised equipment with them and they hacked my computer too.” A Delhi court had asked the Delhi Police to probe allegations that Pracha had “tutored” some victims and witnesses in the Delhi riots case to give “false statements”. “The allegations against me are that a client came to me, and after a few days left because he was disappointed that I wouldn’t do any ‘setting’ for him with the judge or the police – that I only fight the case legally.” “The real intent was that they wanted to take my hard disk because it contained complaints against the RSS and the BJP with which we would have connected Shah to the northeast Delhi riots. But how could they have taken it.” “Secondly, they threatened hundreds of people from the Muslim community or filed ‘false cases’ against them to force them to withdraw their complaints [in the northeast Delhi riots cases]. In this case too they threatened him [the person mentioned above] and got a statement recorded under section 164. How difficult is that for the police?” he again asked. Pracha insisted that there were hundreds of examples of such pressure being mounted on the complainants. “People whose video recordings are there later claimed that no harm came to them, their shops were not looted, because the police scared them. These have been our complaints since the beginning. This is what we have been fighting for. We have also been trying to establish the link between the riots and Shah and we are confident of [proving] that… It is not possible for them to scare me, they can only kill me,” he said.
Sources:
https://thewire.in/rights/delhi-riots-advocate-mehmood-pracha-amit-shah
Delhi Police accused of anti-Muslim bias in investigation of Delhi riots cases
Date: 9 September 2020
Category: Discrimination
In the aftermath of the Delhi violence of February 2020, apart from allegations of colluding with rioters or engaging in violence against Muslims themselves, the Delhi Police have also been facing accusations of not registering FIRs on complaints of Muslim riot survivors, especially cases where the rioters have been identified and named. Moreover, allegations of a biased investigation – in which anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act activists are being arrested without any evidence – are being ignored by the courts. In a report, The Wire quotes the story of Khursheed Saifi, who was inside the Farooqia masjid in Mustafabad, northeast Delhi, when rioters and men in uniform attacked the anti-CAA protest at Brijpuri Puliya next door and then wreaked havoc inside the mosque. On March 15, nearly 20 days after the events he witnessed and personally suffered in, Khursheed filed a complaint at the Delhi Police help desk at the Idgah relief camp. In his complaint, Khursheed identified three people from Brijpuri by name – Rahul Verma, Arun Basoya and Chawla – and said they were part of a group which attacked the anti-CAA protest site on Brijpuri Pulia with the help of the police. According to the people of Mustafabad, the police at first refused to accept complaints. After public pressure due to allegations that the Delhi Police was ignoring the complaints of Muslim riot survivors, a police help desk was set up, on March 7,at the Mustafabad Idgah Relief Camp and complaints were recorded as diary entries. Surprisingly the complainant, who is also a victim, was not notified about the registration of the FIR or given a copy. While the police did not share a copy of FIR 64/2020 with the media, a clear discrepancy was apparent between Khursheed Saifi’s complaint and the IPC sections mentioned in the FIR registered by the Dayalpur Police Station. Khursheed has specifically made allegations of murder, attempt to murder, targeting on the basis of religion and murder by men in uniform, burning of religious texts and, communal and inflammatory statements that amount to promotion of enmity in his complaint. However none of these charges appear in the FIR which has been registered. Four months after another complainant, Gulfam, filed a complaint about his brother Zakir’s murder and the violence he witnessed,his lawyers claim no action was taken on his complaint so far. Interestingly, Delhi Police’s FIR No 77/20 mentions Zakir’s murder but neither Gulfam nor his lawyers were notified about the FIR. Like many others, Gulfam found that an FIR had been registered from an affidavit that was submitted by the Delhi Police before the Delhi high court on July 13. Details of the FIR have still not been made available to the complainant.
Sources:
https://thewire.in/communalism/delhi-riots-2020-victims-allege-police-bias
Eating halal meat against Hindu, Sikh beliefs, says Delhi civic body
Date: 26 December 2020
Category: Discrimination
A resolution passed by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation on 24 December stated that eating ‘halal’ meat was forbidden in Hinduism and Sikhism. “Therefore, the committee resolves that this direction be given to restaurants and meat shops that it should be written mandatorily about the meat being sold and served by them that ‘halal’ or ‘jhatka’ meat is available here,” the resolution said. The proposal now awaits nod in the SDMC House, which is controlled by the BJP, after which it would become a rule. Standing committee chief Rajdutt Gehlot said, “Suppose a person wants jhatka meat but gets halal, then he will feel offended. So the idea is just to mention whether it is jhatka or halal. Secondly, if I have taken license of jhatka and I am serving halal or vice versa , then this will keep a check on such violations as such things are recorded while taking licence.” A similar proposal was earlier passed by the East MCD meet in 2018 stating that shop owners have to put up prominent boards, specifying if they are serving halal or jhatka meat. In 2017, the SDMC had proposed that meat and its products were not to be displayed in the open, citing hygiene and “sentiments of people affected by the sight” of meat as main reasons behind the move. The move was not implemented after protests from shop owners.
Sources:
Muslim League is a communal party, says CPI(M) state secretary
Date: 21 December 2020
Category: Hate speech
A Vijayaraghavan, the state secretary of CPI(M) Kerala, called the Indian Union Muslim League a ‘communal’ party. “Muslim League is moving towards a more religious fundamentalist outlook. In the current situation, this is helping Hindu terrorism. A majority of Muslims oppose this radicalization (of the Muslim League),” he said while speaking to the media. “The Muslim League is taking away Muslims, most of whom keep a secular mindset, towards the path of radicalization for political gains,” Vijayaraghavan said. He was commenting on a recent remark made by the Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan, who ridiculed that the Congress-led UDF was “being led by the Muslim League (a party in the alliance)”. His remarks had led to a back-and-forth between CPI(M) and Muslim League, with the latter questioning what was wrong if it made decisions pertaining to the alliance. Education minister and CPI(M) member K T Jaleel, on the other hand, suggested that the party drop the term ‘Muslim’ from its name, so as not to be confused over whether it was a political party or a religious organization.
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=249075409893834
Cops raze Muslim house after stones pelted at Bajrang Dal rally
Date: 27 December 2020
Category: Hate violence: Physical
A rally by Bajrang Dal and other Right-wing organisations to raise funds for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya allegedly came under attack when it passed through a Muslim-dominated area in Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh. Stones were reportedly pelted at the rally when it passed through the Begumbagh area, but residents of Begumbagh alleged they were provoked by the inflammatory slogans raised during the rally that passed through their neighbourhood, not once but twice on the same day. The residents also claimed the Hindu groups pelted stones at them first, prompting them to retaliate. The local administration, on the next day, pulled down a two-storey house in the area from where stones were allegedly pelted at the rally. The police also arrested eight persons and booked four of them under the National Security Act (NSA). Muslims in the area lodged a complaint too, alleging they were attacked first, the police said. Tension prevailed in the area when the local administration officials accompanied by a large police force gathered to demolish the house, which was identified from videos of the stone-pelting incident, and to make more arrests. The residents tried to stop the administration from demolishing the house and called the action discriminatory, alleging that stones were also pelted by the Right-wing groups. Ujjain Shahar Qazi Khaliq-ur-Rahman told ThePrint the administration’s action was not proper given that the Hindu groups threw stones first, forcing the residents to retaliate. He claimed that a few vehicles and autos belonging to Muslims in the area had been torched during the rally, adding that the administration and the police are “terrorising the minority community”. Meanwhile, Abdul Samad, a community leader in Dhar city, submitted a memorandum Saturday to the district collector, demanding that action should be taken against those who took out the rally because they carried arms and also for violating Covid-19 protocol.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dJUfKcNPTk&feature=youtu.be
Love Jihad laws creating atmosphere of hatred, says BJP ally
Date: 27 December 2020
Category: Discrimination
In a massive shift from BJP's view, its Bihar ally JDU has said that there was 'no need for Love-Jihad law' in Bihar. Speaking after the JDU National council on 27 December, JDU spokesperson KC Tyagi said that the atmosphere created by these 'Love Jihad laws' was not good. JDU has also maintained that there is no need for NRC in Bihar. "Using 'Love jihad' an atmosphere of hatred is being created in all corners of the nation. The constitution states that there is total freedom for people to marry anyone they wish - irrespective of caste, region, religion etc. JDU does not like the disruptive and hateful atmosphere being created due to 'Love Jihad' across the nation. There is no place for such laws," said Tyagi.
Sources:
https://thewire.in/communalism/jdu-leader-k-c-tyagi-speaks-out-against-love-jihad-laws-in-states
Tablighi Jamaat: Patna court quashes case against 18 foreign nationals charged
Date: 27 December 2020
Category: Discrimination
The Patna high court quashed the first information report (FIR) filed against 18 Bangladeshi and Malaysian nationals arrested from Araria district of Bihar for violating visa rules during the nationwide lockdown triggered by the outbreak of COVID-19. The court found no basis to prosecute the foreign nationals under Section 14 and 14C of the Foreigners Act, 1946, and directed the government to take necessary steps to deport the foreign nationals to their respective countries.“In light of the discussions made herein above, this Court comes to a conclusion that so far as the foreign nationals are concerned, their prosecution for the offences alleged under Section 14 and 14C of the Act of 1946 has no basis to proceed. Accordingly, the order taking cognizance and issuance of summons as also the entire criminal prosecution against them are hereby quashed,” Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad wrote in his 68-page order on December 22.The foreign nationals in question had come to Araria on March 11 and March 23 before the first lockdown was imposed. They had also visited Nizamuddin Markaz but before the Tablighi Jamaat gathering. Despite the fact that there has been no link between the foreign nationals in question and the religious gatherings in Nizamuddin Markaz, police jumped into action and lodged FIRs against them. After the arrest, they were tested for COVID-19, and test results turned negative. The main charge against the foreign nationals had been that they had not disclosed information to authorities about the propagation of religion by them and staying in mosques and Markaz allegedly violating visa rules. However, the police could not produce evidence to prove their allegations in court. In August, the Aurangabad bench of Bombay high court had acquitted 29 people of foreign origin and said that they were merely made scapegoats. “There was big propaganda in print media and electronic media against the foreigners who had come to Markaz Delhi and an attempt was made to create a picture that these foreigners were responsible for spreading COVID-19 in India. There was virtually persecution against these foreigners,” The Hindu had reported quoting court order.
Sources:
https://thewire.in/law/tablighi-jamaat-case-patna-high-court-fir-quashed
Controversial police officer appointed as Kerala CM’s police advisor
Date: 31 March 2018
Category: Hate violence
Raman Srivastava, the IPS officer whose career has passed through several controversial phases, was appointed as personal advisor to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the matters of the Home department. Among other things, Srivastava has been accused of ordering the killing of an 11-year-old Muslim girl in December 1991, when communal tensions were ripe in India in the wake of BJP leader Murali Manohar Joshi’s Ekta Yatra on the Ayodhya issue. While the Yatra had created communal tensions in many parts of Kerala, Puduppalli Street, where 11-year-old Sirajunnisa lived with her family, had been peaceful. However, a team of police officers arrived and under the orders of Raman Srivastava, who was then the DIG of state police, fired directly at Sirajunnisa and killed her. Srivastava allegedly ordered the firing at ‘the Muslim bastards’ to let them ‘die like dogs’. He also told ASP Sandhya “I want some dead bodies of Muslim bastards’. A case was lodged against him and several other officers at the time by Kolakkadan Moosa Haji, who had witnessed the entire incident. However, the investigation was allegedly waylaid and later closed down.
Sources:
https://newsable.asianetnews.com/south/raman-srivastava-is-kerala-cms-police-advisor
https://www.thejasnews.com/latestnews/29-years-of-pain-in-the-memory-of-sirajunnisa--156023
https://www.milligazette.com/Archives/2005/16-31Mar05-Print-Edition/163103200558.htm