Several politicians, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi, and others, have spoken against the genocidal speeches made against Muslims in the three-day-long hate speech conclave held in Haridwar, which ironically, was organised as a ‘dharam sansad.’
Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi on Friday, 24 December, "Hindutvawadi always spread hatred and violence. Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-Christian pay for this hatred. But no more!"
Meanwhile, Priyanka Gandhi called for strictest action to be taken against “those who incite hatred and violence of this kind.”
Further, referring to Dharamdas Maharaj’s speech, where he had said that he would have shot former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh six times, Gandhi said:
“It is despicable that they should get away with making an open call to murder our respected ex-PM and unleash violence against people of different communities. Such acts violate our constitution and the law of our land.”
Here’s what Dharamdas Maharaj from Bihar had said:
"If I was present in the parliament when PM Manmohan Singh said that minorities have first right over national resources, I would've followed Nathuram Godse, I'd have shot him six times in the chest with a revolver."
Not just this, most speeches called for Hindus to pick up arms against Muslims. After videos of the speeches went viral, Uttarakhand Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) on Thursday, 23 December, four days after the event ended.
Meanwhile, right-wing groups have come in defence of the calls for murder, by trying to equate the controversial Hindutva leader Yati Narsinghanand, who had organised the hate conclave, to Owaisi by sharing a one-minute clip from Owaisi's speech and claiming that the AIMIM chief made a speech against Hindus.
However, to set the record straight, Owaisi put out a thread stating that the one-minute video being circulated from his 45 minute speech given in Kanpur, is clipped and being used “in order to distract from #HaridwarGenocidalMeet.”
He concludes his thread, saying, “In Haridwar Genocidal Meet, majoritarian organisations have called for genocide. The conversation cannot shift from the fact that people are openly calling for violence while the government of the day is complicit.”
Meanwhile, Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "thundering silence" on the hate speech and said in a tweet, "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas is total Bakwaas as far as the Prime Minister and his drumbeaters are concerned. It's only an empty slogan."
Further, Congress leader Pawan Khera put out a video saying, "If we keep quiet today, we will be condemning our future generations to complete destruction."
Sharing The Quint's previous story on the same, Congress leader Karti P Chidambaram questioned, "are the Faux Hindutva Nazis planning an holocaust? Will the Union of India & it's institutions be a blind/mute spectator? (sic)"
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)