Hate unlimited

Bajrang Dal launches fresh anti–Muslim campaign in Mumbai

In what seemed like the launching of yet another hate campaign, at a public meeting in Mumbai
on February 21, the Maharashtra unit of the Bajrang Dal issued a call to arms, exhorting the 5,000-strong crowd "to lay hand on weapons", go for the "killers of cows" and "drink the blood of sinners."

From the point of view of the agitators, the fact that the Muslim festival of ‘Bakri Eid’ and the Mahavir Jayanti for Jains fall on the same day — March 29 —, is obviously an opportune coincidence. "See to it that not a single animal is slaughtered on Ahimsa Day (March 29)," was the war cry sounded.

"Main to kahta hoon, sala Mussalman gaddar hai", thundered one of the speakers at the meet. A civic issue that has acquired communal overtones in recent years — the use of loudspeakers in mosques for calling the azaan — was also raked up. A deadline of May 15 was set for Muslims to pull down loudspeakers from all mosques, failing which the Bajrang Dal threatened to take matters in its hands.

As reported by newspapers published from Mumbai the next day, the statements, threats, slogans and exhortations issued at the meeting included the following:

Ø ‘Halt trucks carrying cattle for Bakri Eid and teach the truck drivers a lesson!’

Ø ‘Come out on the streets and show your strength. If they show knives, you show swords’.

Ø ‘Hindus are compared to cows. But once the cow charges with horns, nobody can stop her’.

Ø ‘Drink the blood of sinners’.

Ø ‘It’s time to lay your hands on weapons’.

Ø ‘Let Salman Rushdie come to India, 75 crore Hindus will protect him’.

Ø ‘Ours is not a Ganga–Jamuna culture. When the Jamuna meets the Ganga, it becomes the Ganga. So also the mainstream in Bharat is Hindutva and everyone has to accept it’.

Ø ‘Until Hindus react, no one will listen to us’.

‘Ayodhya to sirf jhanki hai, Mathura Kashi baki hai’.

Such remarks made at a public meeting, are clearly violative of sections 153a and 153b of the IPC, which relate to "incitement of hatred and violence against certain sections on the basis of religion." In other words, they are criminal offences punishable by law. However, inquiries made by Communalism Combat with the Azad Maidan police station and senior police officials indicated that, even three weeks after such blatant incitement, the Mumbai police had failed to initiate any penal action against the Bajrang Dal leaders.

Mumbai’s joint commissioner of police (law and order), P.S. Pasricha, was evasive when contacted on more than one occasion. All he would say was that he was unaware of the action taken, adding that he would investigate whether the speeches merited action. As if to highlight its biased conduct, the police was very prompt in arresting Samajwadi leader, Tushar Gandhi, who staged a one–person protest against such blatant incitement to violence. He was later released.

The use of loudspeakers at local mosques has had a controversial past. For civic and environmental groups, azaan from loud speakers contributes to noise pollution, just as some religious practices of other groups do, and so they have opposed it on that ground. But during the Mumbai riots of 1992–1993, this issue and the question of Friday namaaz on the streets was given a clear communal turn with the BJP–Shiv Sena jointly organising "retaliatory" mahaartis.

Many feel that the time chosen by the Bajrang Dal to rake up this issue afresh, along with the question of slaughter of animals on Bakri Eid/Mahavir Jayanti is not insignificant — assembly elections are less than a year away and there is near unanimity over the fact that the Sena–BJP coalition will be voted out of power.

Many police officials the CC spoke to expressed the apprehension that, as has become a pattern, some "extremist" groups will try and whip up communal sentiments. The Bajrang Dal’s sabre–rattling is being viewed in this perspective. In the words of a senior officer who preferred anonymity, such speeches "will only increase as elections near and these forces will seek to get mileage from such remarks and mobilisation." However, the fact that only "small crowds are attending such meetings" gives them hope.

While individual officers express concern at the possible deterioration of the situation, there is little the law and order machinery is doing to send out the message that instigation to violence will be seriously dealt with.

Political observers are also raising questions whether it is a matter of design that this time in Maharashtra, the Bajrang Dal, and not the Shiv Sena, has been chosen to flag the saffron election campaign. Why, for example, is the SS, normally the one to reap quick profit for such violent mobilisations, keeping quiet? Is this yet another strategy of Hindutva to allow outfits like the VHP–Bajrang Dal to whip up public sentiments, the political fallout of which could later be harvested by the SS–BJP coalition?