Communalism

A Supreme Court bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and B.V. Nagarathna had strong words to say on the role of the state in taking action against incidents of hate speech.

The hearing, in which the bench was considering a petition asking for contempt of court action against the Maharashtra government over their alleged failure to act against hate speeches during rallies, was reported on by LiveLaw in detail. The petitions alleged that the state government was ignoring the Supreme Court’s own directions when dealing with processions of the Sakal Hindu Samaj. This Supreme Court bench had also asked authorities to take relevant action against proponents of hate speech without waiting for a complaint to be filed.

https://thewire.in/law/supreme-court-justice-joseph-nagarathna-hate-speech-religion 

31/03/2023

टी राजा का खुले मंच से मुस्लिमों पर हमला_T Raja Singh again gave hate speech against Muslims   https://youtu.be/GBNx9lAm90U?t=90  Mar 19, 2023

Since November, several similar rallies have been held across Maharashtra. At nearly all of them, speakers have called for violence against Muslims or floated conspiracy theories about the community. https://scroll.in/article/1045315/how-love-jihad-rallies-are-spreading-hate-against-muslims-in-maharashtra 

But even the Supreme Court’s scrutiny did little to stem the flood of provocative speeches at these rallies, which are being organised under the umbrella of the Sakal Hindu Samaj.

“Such hate speeches were never made in Mumbai before,” said Lara Jesani, general secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties. “That they are able to openly call for violence worries us.”

Observers of Maharashtra’s politics differ on why the rallies have picked up pace in Maharashtra.

Former journalist Kumar Ketkar said the reasons were electoral. “Polls are coming up,” he said. “They feel these rallies will benefit them, make fence-sitters switch sides and vote for the BJP.”

by Tabassum Barnagarwala

10/03/2023 

Women in Bengaluru protest Pramod Mutalik’s hate speech against Muslim women https://cjp.org.in/women-in-bengaluru-protest-pramod-mutaliks-hate-speech-against-muslim-women/  Days after the Hindutva extremist leader and head of the Sri Ram Sena Pramod Muthalik urged Hindu men to “get 10 Muslim girls for losing one Hindu girl to Love-Jihad, and declared that such Hindu men would be provided security and employment by his organisation, ordinary citizens protested outside the office of Director General of Police (DGP), Praveen Sood, protesting against the derogatory comment made by Muthalik.

Muslim women have been increasingly targeted with vile sexual threats, both online and on the ground. The blatantly abusive behaviour is often spearheaded with impunity by right-wing extremists and socio-culturally influential members of the majority community. It has been made clear above that the authorities have full power to take action against anti-woman and derogatory comments made by Muthalik. Despite this, no action has been taken. It is also pertinent to note that had such comments been made by a person who was not backed by the majority community, the actions followed such a statement had been different.

If this incident is ignored, even after there are directions laid down by the Supreme Court, it will add on to the current environment of unsafety that exists for the women and the marginalized in India. Such state sponsored impunity may make Muslim women more and more vulnerable in the social and public sphere.