Video Editor: Nitin Bisht
"If you (Muslims) care about your community, you will not utter a word against Ramgiri Maharaj," said Nitesh Rane, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and MLA from Kankavali at an event in Maharashtra's Shrirampur on Sunday, 1 September.
Son of former chief minister and former minister in PM Narendra Modi's cabinet Narayan Rane, Nitesh in the same statement also threatened to enter mosques and thrash Muslims if need be, in his signature statement "Chun chun ke maarenge" which he has often used in the past.
Ironically, Nitesh Rane's hateful rant came 'in defence of' Ramgiri Maharaj, who himself was booked two weeks ago for controversial statements on Prophet Mohammed. Since that controversy erupted on 18 August, Rane has been vocally supporting Ramgiri Maharaj's statements as 'facts' on TV debates and press briefings.
However, even as headlines laced with shock value are being flashed by the media and seeking explanation for Rane's statements, it hardly comes as a shock to anybody who has followed his politics and his speeches over the years.
For his latest hateful tirade, two FIRs have been registered at Shrirampur and Tofkhana police stations. That begs the question: Will the FIRs, unlike all the previous FIRs against him, lead to any punitive action?
Here's a closer look into Nitesh Rane's politics and how he enjoys immunity for his hate speeches:
Not the First Hate Speech, Not the First FIR
Along with T Raja Singh, the Telangana MLA who himself has been been booked in multiple cases across the country of hate speeches and promoting religious animosity, Nitesh Rane has been a frequent at Hindutva rallies organised by the Sakal Hindu Samaj across the state.
In the events over the past two years where most speeches are filled with expletives against Muslims, labels such as 'jihadis', 'Bangladeshis', and 'Rohingyas', calls for economic boycott of the community, and unsubstantiated claims of 'love jihad' and 'land Jihad'.
In several speeches and statements, Rane, in the presence of the police has publicly said that anybody who wants to take law in their own hands in order to 'retaliate against any atrocities by Muslims must do so', and that he will save them, from the police. At one instance, the threats were also issued by him from the police commissioner's office in Thane's Mira Road.
The Quint analysed over 30 speeches, media statements, and scores of social media posts of Nitesh Rane from the past one year that fall under the purview of hate speech, hurting religious sentiments, and promoting animosity between two communities.
Here are some highlights and excerpts:
7 July 2023: At a Sakal Hindu Samaj rally in Malegaon, he made claims of Muslims wanting to topple Constitution and bring Sharia law in the country. He also called a Muslim locality in the area 'mini Pakistan'.
17 July, 2023: At a speech in Solapur against those praising Aurangzeb, he said: "If anyone dares to praise Augranzeb, make sure to keep a place booked for yourself in the nearest kabristan."
4 September 2023: In a speech on alleged illegal encroachment by Muslims near Pune's Punyeshwar temple, he said: "My colleague (BJP MLA Mahesh Landge) spoke about demolishing, but I usually prefer chopping. Once we give a date for evacuation, you must not care about anything. Just watch the clip of what Kar Sewaks did. Even I feel sometimes that I should have got the opportunity of bringing down at least one brick there. But looks like the Pune authorities are going to give me that opportunity via Punyeshwar temple."
11 October, 2023: In a byte to news agency ANI ahead of Navratri festival, he alleged a 'large scale conspiracy' of love jihad and forced religious conversions at Dandiya events in Maharashtra. He demanded that Aadhaar cards of all participants must be checked and only Hindus should be allowed at these events. None of these claims could be verified.
8 January 2024: At a rally at Solapur, he said that a country with 90% Hindus is automatically a 'Hindu rashtra'. He also constantly used the word 'jihadis' while speaking about Muslims and that anybody who dares to have an 'evil eye' on Hindus will not be be able to 'see again'.
24 January: After communal unrest during a rally in Thane's Mira Road by residents to celebrate Ram temple inauguration on 22 January, Rane in an address to the media along with local MLA Geeta Jain said that if the police cannot create fear among the 'jihadis', "the Hindu community is very much capable of doing so." The press briefing took place at the police commissioner's office.
27 January, 2024: At an event in Pandharpur in Solapur district, he said: "Henceforth, do whatever you and to do and then give me a call that you have done this and you need to be saved. We will make sure that you reach home safely. It will be the responsibility of our people to get you home safely. I am giving this assurance in front of the police, don't worry."
Referring to Devendra Fadnavis, he further said that the police won't be able to do anything about anyone taking the law in their own hands since his "boss is sitting at Sagar Bungalow."
10 February 2024: In an address in Mumbai's Govandi, he said that as long as Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis, and Narendra Modi are present in the government, no 'jihadis' will be able to take over the country. On the same day, he participated in a rally where chants of "Tu Durga Ban, tu Kaali Ban, Kabhi na Burqe Wali Ban".
19 February 2024: In Akola's Balapur, he repeated his tirade against the community and peddled claims of Muslims wanting to take over and abolish Hindus.
27 February 2024: In a protest against illegal encroachments in Mumbai's Dongri, Nitesh Rane openly threatened the police that encroachments must be stopped or he will "come with his men unannounced and enter homes of Bangladeshis to send them to Bangladesh."
3 March 2024: At a Sakal Hindu Samaj event in Mumbai's Malad, he spoke about unrest in Mira Road and threatened to enter mosques and repeated his signature line "chun chun ke maarenge." A similar tirade was repeated in Ghatkopar on 10 March, and in Chembur on 3 August.
5 August 2024: On alleged targeting of Hindu minorities and temples in Bangladesh after the collapse of Sheikh Hasina's government, he tweeted: "If Hindus are being killed in Bangladesh, why should we allow Bangladeshis to breathe here? Chun chun ke maarenge." He later deleted the tweet.
There are several other statements from his speeches that have not been mentioned here for their communally sensitive nature.
FIRs Against Nitesh Rane & Struggles to File Them
In January this year, an FIR was registered against Rane and Goshamahal MLA Raja Singh for allegedly delivering hate speeches in Solapur at a rally organised by Sakal Hindu Samaj. However, it was the first FIR filed in a series of hate speeches that Rane has continued to give in the past two years since the umbrella Hindutva outfit started its statewide morchas.
Asked about the progress in the probe, a senior Solapur police officer said: "We have the case registered with us. Further probe depends on government's approval."
The officer said they could not divulge any further details but will respond when they know more. The story will be updated if and when they do.
In April this year, the Mumbai police told the Bombay High Court that FIRs have been registered against Rane in several hate speeches he has given in Mira Road, Mankhurd, Malwani, and Ghatkopar.
However, the FIRs filed over hate speeches in Mumbai and Thane did not come without several activists and citizens' bodies moving court.
In March this year, five people, including two victims of communal unrest in Mira Road, filed a petition in the Bombay High Court requesting it to urge the police to file an FIR against Jain and Rane for several hate speeches following the communal unrest on 22 January.
Similarly, official complaints against Rane's hate speeches in Ghatkopar, Dongri, and Akola were also filed by human rights body Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) between 2-8 April.
In February, two lawyers of the Bombay HC and five law students from Govandi even wrote to the Chief Justice of India, urging him to press for action against Rane over his hate speeches and derogatory language against Muslims in the rallies in Mankhurd and Govandi, claiming that the police failed to file as FIR they were trying to register.
On 11 April, the court ordered police commissioners of Mumbai and Mira-Bhayandar and Vasai-Virar (MBVV) to observe video clips and decide on the need to file FIRs based on the petitions of Mira road residents.
On 24 April, the police informed the Bombay HC that FIRs have been filed against Rane, Jain, and some other leaders in the hates speeches across Thane and Mumbai.
According to Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar's information to the Court, as reported by The Indian Express, Rane was named in:
FIR at Mankhurd police station under Section 153A (promoting enmity between religious groups)
FIR at Ghatkopar under sections 153A and 506 (criminal intimidation)
Case by Mira-Bhayandar police under Sections 153A, 153B (public statements to promote disharmony between religions), 504 (intentional insults to provoke breach of peace) and 506
Case in Malvani under similar such provisions
Section 153A and 153B are non bailable offences. But these were not all the sections that the petitioners had demanded.
In July, the Bombay HC was told by the Mumbai police that Section 295A (maliciously outraging religious feelings) of the IPC, as the petitioners are demanding, could not be applied against Rane because terms like 'Rohingyas' and 'Bangladeshis' were not "dispareging towards Muslims of India, LiveLaw reported.
After the two FIRs filed in the latest case in Solapur, the total number of FIRs filed against Rane stand at six in 2024 itself, with most of them also having non-bailable offences. That begs the question: Why has Nitesh Rane not been arrested by any of the police departments?
In Octobe 2022, the Supreme Court directed states that suo-motu FIRs must be filed by the police over hate speeches without waiting for an official complaint, and that the failure to do so could even be considered as contempt of court.
Moreover, many of such speeches and statements not only exist on Rane's Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and in media reports on YouTube, but scores of them are also documented by bodies like CJP and Hindutva Watch, along with statements by other leaders at several Sakal Hindu Samaj events.
However, the fact that citizens had to move Bombay HC to get police departments of two neighbouring cities to act is indicative of how hate speeches by leaders across such rallies have gone unchecked by most police departhemts in the state over the past two years despite having powers vested in them by the Supreme Court to do so.
Will Devendra Fadnavis Act?
Maharashtra deputy CM and home minister Devendra Fadnavis has been invoked by Rane in several of his speeches as mentioned before. However, no public statement has been made by the leader on any of the instances to condemn Rane, including the latest speech in Shrirampur.
The Opposition Alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi, meanwhile, slammed Rane equivocally.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut demanded answers from PM Modi.
"You go to foreign nations, hug their leaders, preach secularism by visiting their grand mosques. Firstly, you must stop this pretence. What action did the authorities take when he said he will enter mosques?" Raut asked.
"These small leaders are looking to incite riots across the state. They want to set the state on fire. You call yourself Hindutvawadi but the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji collapsed in your region," Raut said.
A delegation of the Congress met Maharashtra DGP Rashmi Shukla.
(Photo: Twitter/Varsha Gaikwad)
A delegation of the Congress party led by Mumbai party chief and Lok Sabha MP Varsha Gaikwad, meanwhile, met Maharashtra DGP Rashmi Shukla "to discuss concerns regarding increasing incidents of communal violence and incendiary statements made by BJP leaders like Nitesh Rane, Prasad Lad and Ramgiri Maharaj and others."
"We demanded her to direct the police force across the state to investigate and act dispassionately against such blatant violations of constitutional principles and criminal incitement which have been on the rise for the past six months," she tweeted.
The BJP, till date, has not sent Rane any show cause notice over his comments either, sources said.
According to a media report, Narayan Rane said that he has 'reprimanded his son' and told him 'not to drag religion in his speeches.' Speaking to India Today, BJP spokesperson Tuhin Sinha said such comments "have no space in public life" but also went on to call out the Congress' "selective outrage" on hate speeches by Hindus.
Some leaders of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, however, have condemned Rane's latest comments and also some statements of the past.
Speaking to the media, Shiv Sena leader and cabinet minister Abdul Sattar on Tuesday said that "some people have a habit of making controversial statements."
"I don't want to further the controversy over it. It is a matter of the BJP, deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis will take cognizance and speak to him. It won't be appropriate for me to speak as a state cabinet minister against an MLA of my own alliance," Sattar said.
A few weeks ago, Rane again stoked controversy by saying that 'if they try to disturb Ganesh Chaturthi processions, Muharram processions will be disturbed too.'
Nationalist Congress Party leader and cabinet minister Hasan Mushrif condemned Rane's comments and urged Fadnavis to take congnizance of it.
"The two commuinities have lived peacefully in the state for years. At many places, Ganesh Chaturthi and Muharram are celebrated together harmoniously. I hope nobody is trying to compromise that harmony," he said.
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