At two separate events in Delhi and Haridwar, the speakers asked Hindus to buy weapons for genocide against Muslims, according to the Scroll.
Multiple videos of Hindutva group members, journalists and a Bharatiya Janata Party leader calling for violence against Muslims sparked outrage on social media. In one of the videos, Suresh Chavhanke, the editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News, can be seen administering an oath to a group of people to "die for and kill" to make India a "Hindu rashtra" or a Hindu nation.
Suresh Chavhanke made the comments while addressing an event of Hindutva group Hindu Yuva Vahini in Delhi on December 19. "We take an oath and make a resolution that till our last breath, we shall fight, die for and if need be, kill, to make this country a Hindu rashtra," Chavhanke said. Those present around him repeated his statements.
Religious Parliament
Between December 17 and 19, a large collection of major religious leaders, right-wing activists, hardline fundamentalist militants and Hindutva organizations came together at Haridwar for an event called the 'Dharma Sansad' or 'Religious Parliament'. Over the course of three days, this event witnessed an extraordinary outpouring of hate speech, mobilizations to violence and anti-Muslim sentiment.
The event was also attended by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, who has previously been arrested for an event he helped organise where slogans were raised calling for violence against Muslims, and BJP Mahila Morcha leader Udita Tyagi, giving the event a level of political encouragement from the ruling party.
"We have to make preparations," said Swami Prabodhanand Giri, president of the Hindu Raksha Sena, a right-wing organization based out of Uttarakhand. "And I'll tell you what preparations those are. I will make myself clear, this is the solution, and if you follow this solution, then the path is made for you... in Myanmar, Hindus were being chased away. The politicians, government and police were just standing and watching. They started by killing them by cutting their necks, and not only this, but they began to cut them in the streets and eat them. The people watching thought we are going to die, we are not going to live.
"Like in Myanmar, the police here, the politicians here, the army and every Hindu must pick up weapons and we will have to conduct this cleanliness drive (safai abhiyan). There is no solution apart from this," Giri added.
The statements calling for ethnic cleansing and genocide are particularly alarming given Prabodhanand's connections with the BJP, The Wire pointed out.
Addressing the Dharam Sansad in
Hardwar, Sadhvi Annapurna aka Pooja Shakun Pandey, a mahamandleshwar of
the Niranjani Akhara and general secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha also gave a
call to arms and incitement to genocide.
Without any ambiguity, she gave a
direct call for the mass murder of Muslims.
"Nothing is possible without weapons. If you want to eliminate their population then kill them. Be ready to kill and be ready to go to jail. Even if 100 of us are ready to kill 20 lakhs (2 million) of them (Muslims), then we will be victorious, and go to jail" Like [Nathuram] Godse, I am ready to be maligned, but I will pick up arms to defend my Hindutva from every demon who is a threat to my religion," she said.
Swami Dharam Das Maharaj from Patna said, "If I had gun, I would have become Nathuram Godse and I would have shot Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh inside Parliament."
It may be pointed out that Nathuram Godse was the assassin of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi. He shot Gandhi in the chest three times at point blank range in New Delhi on 30 January 1948.
Another Hindutva leader, Swami Anandswaroop, whose hate speeches and incitement to violence have been documented by The Wire in the past, was also seen making genocidal statements. "The decision of this Dharma Sansad would be a word of God and the government will have to listen to it," he said. "If it won't, then we would wage a war that would be more gruesome than the revolt of 1857."
He went on to explain through personal examples how Hindus should deal with Muslim street vendors. "The street in which I live, every morning I used to spot a Mullah [derogatory word for a Muslim] with a big beard and nowadays they keep a saffron beard. This is Haridwar, Maharaj. There is no Muslim buyer here, so throw him out," he said.
The Wire pointed out that despite the open calls for violence by leaders, many of whom have BJP connections, the police have failed to register cases or make arrests.
