“Remember, if there are Hindu temples in Muslim localities, then there are Mosques in Hindu localities as well.”
On July 9, several Hindutva outfits affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) descended upon Old Delhi’s Lal Kuan and Hauz Qazi for a rally labelled the “Vishal Shobha Yatra”. The Bajrang Dal, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the United Hindu Front marched from Lal Kuan to Khari Baoli, Fatehpur Masjid and back to Durga Mandir in Lal Kuan, during which they delivered hateful speeches targeting Muslims. The rally was taken out to reinstall idols at the temple that was vandalised in the violence that took place in the area last week.
Around a week ago, the locality had witnessed a riot-like situation when groups of Hindus and Muslims clashed over a parking-related dispute. The clash led to several people being injured and a temple being vandalised.
Security in Old Delhi had been beefed up because of the procession.
Videos from the rally shared by Karwan-e-Mohabbat with NewsCentral24x7, show Hindutva leaders present at the Yatra making hateful comments and issuing threats to members of the Muslim community.
Surendra Kumar Jain, Joint General Secretary of VHP, said “If you (Muslims) walk on Babur’s path, there will be trouble…. I understand that after today, there will be peace in this locality… Hindus will live peacefully, you will live peacefully… if there is any trouble, we will have to choose other means. Do not test our patience.”
In another video, a man wearing saffron robes and addressed as the ‘Mahamantri’ of the Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti, an umbrella body of Hindu seers, said, “Bohot majbooriyon mein yeh ek chetavni sabha karne ki zaroorat aa padi (In extreme desperation, we have been forced to organise this warning meeting)”
He added that those playing “dhol-nagare” and sloganeering in the rally, if they imbibed even ten sentences of his speech and applied them to their lives, then, “No one in this country will ever dare touch a temple again.”
Calling the incident of the temple vandalism a “conspiracy”, he addressed the police and Muslim locals and said, “Remember, this country was partitioned based on religion. Those who liked Islam went to Pakistan and Bangladesh; those who loved Hindus and Hindustan stayed here. That means we have a right to these lands. They must remember that they are here on the mercy of Hindus.”
“We are not dependent on Narendra Modi or Amit Shah. Modi ji was only a new CM in Gujarat, but the Hindus of Gujarat were awake,” he said amid loud cheers, referring to the 2002 Gujarat riots where Hindu Mobs attacked and killed hundreds of Muslims . He then openly threatened the Muslim community with dire consequences, reminding them of anti-Muslim riots like those in Gujarat, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar.
Referring to the incident of vandalism, he provocatively said that Hindus all over India were asking if Hindus of Delhi, were not “manly”.
Another saffron-clad man told the crowd that certain “Rasthradrohis” (traitors to the country) and “Dharmadrohis” (those who betray their religion) have been unable to “digest” Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempts to lead the nation towards “sabka vikas“. They said that such people should be thrown out of the country. “Hindu samaj will no longer sit quietly.”
Speech that promotes enmity between different groups is penalised under Section 153A and Section 295(A) of the IPC, yet, no action as of yet seems to have been taken against this particular incident. Even in the presence of the Delhi Police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Hindu leaders can be seen making provocative, incendiary comments against the Muslim community.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Goel, who was also part of the rally, reportedly told ANI, “Today’s Shobha Yatra was taken out to convey that nobody has the right to cause any damage to any place of worship.”
Little has been reported about hate speeches and threats. ANI reported that the Aman Committee distributed food to the participants of Shobha Yatra.
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