Introduction
A Special investigation team (SIT) of five members has been formed to investigate the alleged hate speech in Haridwar during “DharamSansad”[1]. Call for genocide was raised in This event which was held in Haridwar between December 17–19 and after a couple of days of this event, another similar two-day event was held in Raipur attended by around twenty Hindutva religious leaders which were organised by the NGO Neelkanth Seva Samiti and the Doodhdhari math with the aim of beginning preparation of Hindu Rashtra.[2] The speeches which were made in this event were Inflammatory. India is a country where people from all religious communities live together in harmony, they celebrate festivals of each and other, and the speeches made in this event was for spreading hatred among communities. The video clips of this event can be seen on different social media platforms, although the veracity of these clips could be not be verified yet since these are not contradicted by either any authority or speakers themselves then it can be easily presumed that these are genuine.[3] These events which were held in these two cities have brought great shame to the country’s religious and constitutional values.
What was problematic in these events?
These events were attended by various religious leaders and some prestigious persons of the society. The theme of the Dharam Sansad, organized in Haridwar was ‘Islamic Bharat mein Sanatan ka Bhavishya: Samasyava Samadhan’[4]. This theme was in itself problematic, I am unable to understand why they had chosen this theme for the event, besides these people I don’t think there is any general public, police or our judiciary believes that we live in an Islamic Bharat, although it is not clear what they meant by Islamic Bharat. The most senior Indian diplomat at the High Commission in Islamabad was summoned and asked by Pakistan’s foreign ministry to convey their concern. In their official statement, the foreign ministry of Pakistan said: “Today, the Indian Charge d’ Affaires was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad and asked to convey the Government of Pakistan’s serious concerns to the Government of India over the widely reported open calls by Hindutva proponents for carrying out genocide of Indian Muslims.”[5]
Although there is nothing strange in a critical statement by any foreign ministry coz it’s common but summoning of Indian diplomates by the foreign ministry of the other country for the harassment of the minorities in India is Rare it is Pakistan who has been summoned by the foreign ministry of India for the harassment of Hindu and Sikh minorities there. India is among one of the countries of the world which have given some special rights to the minorities of its country for protecting their rights, but these events because of their inflammatory speeches against Muslims of the country have brought great shame to India at the global level.
What were the criminal offences made in these events?
In this event, lots of inflammatory statements were made by the speakers of this event which we can see in the video clips of this event and these statements are violating different laws of our country. It was said by one of the speakers that the detector which would be provided by the speakers of this event would be Dharmadesh for the governments of Delhi, Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh and in case they are not accepting it there would be more horrible war against the government then that of 1857, although they are not directly saying the overthrowing of government in case of not following it if we can see then the war of 1857 was a war waged to overthrow the British government, by this we can see the speaker is threatening of overthrowing these governments which were democratically formed. In the judgement of Kedarnath Singh v. State of Bihar[6] Hon’ble Supreme court has said, “Subversion of any government which is elected by the law prescribed in Indian constitution would amount to sedition.” Thus these words of speaker would come under ‘Sedition’
In our country, some special rights have been provided to the Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribespeople under Schedule Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989[7] for safeguarding them from the atrocities of the privileged class. One of the speakers there asked the people of the SC/ST Communities to file the wrong FIR against Muslims under the above-mentioned act, this is an offence under section 182 and section 211 of the Indian Penal Code. In the Dharam Sansad of the Haridwar one of the speakers threatened the hotel owners by saying if any hotel in Haridwar is found celebrating Christmas or Eid, it should be prepared to get its glasses broken. There is no doubt it is encroaching on the people’s right to celebrate any of the religions of their choice, which is fundamental under Article 25 of the constitution,[8] by threatening hotel owners they are encroaching their fundamental right to livelihood which is given under Article 21 of the Indian constitution.[9]
In their speeches they have given reference to Rohingya’s genocide in Myanmar and they used the term Safai Abhiyan for expressing their intention, if we see only the term Safai Abhiyan then we are not going to find any kind of problem in their statement but by attaching it with Myanmar’s incident they have clearly shown their intention. They advised people to take arms with them for their safety from the intruders and in case of having any kind of problem they can tell authorities that it is for “Devi Pooja”, but in the process of telling this either they forgot or were unaware that arms for “Devi Pooja” is not any exception under the Arms Rules, 2016. Besides, there were lots of statements made to spread hatred either directly or indirectly. From the topic of this event till the concluding statement most of them were intentionally made to spread hatred among communities.
Conclusion
Events like Haridwar and Raipur damage India’s image as a secular and democratic country. It was the vision of our constitution-makers to form a country where people of different religions live together with harmony, we believe in the concept of “Unity in Diversity”, which denotes harmony and unity between dissimilar individuals and groups. Events like these that try to spread hatred among communities must be condemned regardless of their Religious, ideological or regional origin.
Author(s) Name: Aman Upadhyay (National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi)
References:
[1] 5-member SIT to probe Haridwar Dharma Sansad ‘hate speech’ case (2022) <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/5-member-sit-to-probe-haridwar-dharma-sansad-hate-speech-scase/articleshow/88644827.cms> accessed 5 January 2021
[2] TarushiAshwini, At Raipur Dharma Sansad, Hindutva Leaders Raise Call to Take up Arms for Hindu Rashtra (2021) <https://thewire.in/communalism/raipur-dharma-sansad-call-for-violence-hindu-rashtra-christian-muslim> accessed 5 January 2021
[3] N.C. Asthana ,A Hate-Filled Call to Arms and Violence at Haridwar (2021) <https://thewire.in/communalism/haridwar-anti-muslim-hate-speech-laws-broken> accessed 6 January 2021
[4] N.C. Asthana ,A Hate-Filled Call to Arms and Violence at Haridwar (2021) <https://thewire.in/communalism/haridwar-anti-muslim-hate-speech-laws-broken> accessed 6 January 2021
[5] Shubhajit Roy, ‘Pakistan summons top Indian diplomat over hate speeches at Dharam Sansad’ (2021) <https://indianexpress.com/article/india/pakistan-summons-top-indian-diplomat-over-hate-speeches-at-dharam-sansad-7693768> accessed at 6 January 2021
[6] Kedarnath singh v the state of Bihar 1962 AIR 955
[7] The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 <https://indiankanoon.org/doc/25085007/> accessed 7 january 2021
[8] The Constitution of India, 1950, art. 25
[9] The Constitution of India, 1950, art. 21
