As TV Anchors Use Mob Attacks on Sadhus to Fuel Anti-Muslim Hate, Real Dangers Ignored

There is a thriving ecosystem of scripted videos depicting child-lifting which may be helping to fuel rumours against targeted groups like sants, faqirs, transgender persons and burqa-clad women.

Lucknow: On Thursday night, News 18 anchor Aman Chopra devoted an entire show to what he claimed was a ‘conspiracy’ to launch mob attacks on sadhus on the suspicion of kidnapping children. The channel ran the hashtag #SadhusUnderAttack on air during the programme. Ironically, his broadcast the day before had actually celebrated vigilante ‘justice’: the public flogging of Muslim men by policemen before a crowd of cheering spectators in Gujarat.

In his opening monologue, Chopra insisted that sadhus were being attacked as part of a conspiracy. “Keep noting and listen very carefully,” Chopra urged his viewers as he mentioned six recent mob attacks on Hindu holy men suspected of child lifting. As Chopra read the list of incidents, the channel’s ticker ran the suggestive texts ‘Sanatan se badla, Sadhuon par lagatar hamla’ (Revenge against Hinduism, serial attack on Hindu seers) and ‘Baccha chori ke afwah, nishane par bhagwa’ (child lifting rumours, Saffron being targeted).

Screengrab of the News 18 tweet showing the suggestive text (1/2).

Screengrab of the News 18 tweet showing the suggestive text (2/2).

“Had it been one, two, three, four, or even five incidents in a month, we’d have thought that this is a coincidence but more than six such cases were reported in a month”. As Chopra said this, the sixth and perhaps most notable case on his list –the lynching of two sadhus in Palghar in April 2020 – flashed on the screen. 

In none of these incidents has there been any evidence that the victims were targeted because of their religion, and Muslims were part of the attackers in only one of these. Yet, Chopra asked, “Just as targeted killings of Hindus happened in Kashmir, are seers being target lynched?” The ‘Kashmir’ reference was a familiar dog whistle for his audience that helped drive home the message of who was to blame.

The incidents that Chopra mentioned are the following:

  1. October 5, 2022: Attack on three sadhus in Chhattisgarh’s Durg on the suspicion of child lifting 
  2. September 27, 2022: Attack on five sadhus in Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari on the suspicion of child lifting 
  3. September 13, 2022: Attack on four sadhus in Maharashtra’s Sangli on the suspicion of child lifting
  4. September 9, 2022: Sadhus attacked in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur on the suspicion of child lifting
  5. September 12, 2022: Sadhus attacked in UP’s Auraiya on the suspicion of child lifting
  6. April 16, 2020: Two sadhus lynched in Maharashtra’s Palghar

Chopra repeatedly suggested that the reason behind these attacks was a sinister conspiracy against Hindus. At least two of his panelists openly blamed Muslims for orchestrating these attacks, though there is no evidence for this. Devkinandan Thakur asserted that the mobs attacking these sadhus appear to be ‘love jihadis’. Another panelist described these attacks as ‘sant jihad’. 

Also read: ‘Thook Jihad’ Is the Latest Weapon in Hindutva’s Arsenal of Islamophobia

Chopra made no effort to stop them from making misleading communal claims that the mobs which attacked the sadhus comprised Muslims. However, when a panelist replied to Thakur’s allegation by saying that in the video which was screened nobody in the mob was wearing a skull-cap and that they could be Hindu, Chopra reprimanded him and asked him not to “communalise” this issue. 

Similar claims were made by Acharya Shailesh Tiwari on an India TV debate show in which he asserted that Christians and Muslims were behind the attack in Durg and that these attacks only took place in Congress administered states. Though both the claims are false, anchor Vivek Shandilya did not counter him and instead presented this opinion as a concern about conversion.

In the recent mob attack in Durg, the sadhus were forced by a group of men to give them Rs 5,000, and when they refused, the men allegedly spread rumours of child lifting against them. It was after this that the sadhus were assaulted by a mob. The police has arrested the five accused –  identified as Satyanarayan, Mulchand Vishad, Yashwant Shahu, Satyendra Kumar Mahto and Bhupesh Kumar Verma.

In the Palghar case, that is frequently presented by right-wing commentators as a religiously motivated hate crime and a supposed jihadi conspiracy, none of the 101 people arrested by the police for the heinous crime is a Muslim. 

We looked up other cases but could come across no mention of a mob attack on sadhus in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. The Wire contacted the SP office, Jabalpur to ask if any viral video of Sadhus being assaulted had been reported in the district. The police denied any such incident had occurred. 

In the other four cases mentioned in Chopra’s list, the majority of the accused happen to be Hindus – except in Sangli, where most of the men accused are Muslims,. So, the answer to the question he posed – are these attacks some sort of ‘revenge’ against Hinduism – is clearly ‘no’.

The problem, in fact, probably lies elsewhere.

Scripted videos help fuel child kidnap rumours?

In the past month, there have been several instances of mob attacks on individuals on suspicion of child-lifting. There are at least 30 recent viral videos of attacks against rag-pickers, transgender persons, burqa-clad woman and daily wagers in Meerut, Ghaziabad, Kasganj, Delhi, Agra, Tanda, Bhadohi, Rai Bareilly, Jaunpur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Malda, Aligarh, Jamalpur, and Mumbra. 

As per the soundbites of several senior police officials across India, we found that mentally challenged persons were specifically targeted in these rumours. 

Disturbingly, The Wire found an entire online ecosystem where low-quality scripted videos are uploaded on Facebook claiming to spread awareness against child-lifting and abduction. Some videos carry a small one second disclaimer as a ticker but that hardly bothers the viewers.

In these insanely viral videos, characters posing as sadhus, faqirs, burqa clad women, transgenders and mentally disabled persons are nabbed by vigilant citizens. Right-wing influencers have amplified some of these videos with a communal spin to target Muslims and even after being pointed out that these videos are scripted, they have refused to delete them.

Along with the sadhus targeted in the recent mob attacks, many Muslim, Dalits and Tribals have also been attacked on suspicion of child-lifting. 

A viral scripted video of fake sadhus stealing the kidneys of children that they ‘murdered’ has over 10 million views and 16 thousand shares on Facebook.

In another viral video with over 2.4 million views on YouTube, a hijabi Muslim woman is presented as a child kidnapper.

We read comments of several such videos and found that a sizable section of the viewers of these scripted videos think that they’re real. 

“See the reality of child lifting,” the post reads.

Apart from enacted kidnappings, scripted videos of forced Hindu-Muslim marriages and love affairs also go viral in this ecosystem. Later, influencers share such videos with misleading claims.

This post tells people to be wary of such “suspicious” individuals and to call the police when they see them.

“In the guise of Hindus, there may be a gang of Rohingya, child lifters. Stay vigilant,” the post reads.

Inviting inciters of mob violence to debate mob violence

Aman Chopra’s hour-long broadcast on the mob attacks on sadhus mentions none of this. Instead, he invited at least two panelists – Karni Sena leader Suraj Pal Amu and Ayodhya seer Raju Das – who have themselves glorified and publicly incited mob-violence on different occasions.

Recently, Raju Das announced a Rs 11 lakh bounty to set ablaze the perpetrators of the Dhumka murder case. In July 2022, he was accused of issuing death threats to Canadian filmmaker Leena Manimekalai for her Kaali poster.

Likewise, Suraj Pal Amu has a long history of making genocidal remarks targeting the Muslim community.

When a Muslim panelist said that people should condemn all acts of mob violence like Akhlaq and Junaid’s murder, Chopra intervened and pointed out that Junaid’s murder was not a hate crime.

Although the matter is still sub-judice, in May 2021, Naresh Kumar Sehrawat, the main accused in Junaid’s murder, shared a stage with Suraj Pal Amu and spoke at a mahapanchayat in support of the accused in gym trainer Asif Khan’s lynching. Sehrawat was introduced by another speaker as a “hero” who fought and killed a ‘jihadi’ in a train. The reference was clearly to 16-year-old Junaid Khan who was stabbed in a moving train in 2017. Naresh, the prime accused in the case, proudly reiterated the fact that he had fought ‘jihadis’ in a train and asked the Mahapanchayat to show support for the accused in Asif Khan’s murder as well, even if they are found to be guilty.

At the same event, addressing a crowd of thousands of people, Amu had allegedly asked “real Hindus” to raise their hands. The crowd responded actively. Then he asked if there are any “Pakistani kids” (Muslims) in the crowd. “He was murdered because of his deeds. They shoot nude photos of our women, should we not even murder them? Muslims are not our brothers…,” he added.

At another mahapanchayat organised in favour of the accused in Asif Khan’s murder, Amu said, “Wo mooche kaat lete hain aur hum gala kaat dete.” (They trim moustaches, we slit throats).” He then asked the crowd, “Hum unko chun chun kar thokenge ki nahi (Should we not identify and shoot them)?” The mob shouted, “thokenge (Shoot them).” 

Also read: Haryana: Several Mahapanchayats Held to Support Those Arrested for ‘Lynching’ Muslim Man

Ironically, even on Chopra’s show on mob attacks against Sadhus, Amu justified assaulting “eve-teasing” Muslim men for entering Hindu festivals. In 2017, Amu’s name surfaced in the news when members of the Karni Sena launched violent protests against the makers of the film Padmavat. Amu had even announced a bounty of Rs 10 crore against the actor Deepika Padukone and was charged under Indian Penal Code Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) for widespread violent protests. 

Mob violence and vigilante justice – whether fuelled by rumours or hatred – need to be condemned in the strongest possible manner. By allowing its panelists to spread propaganda that Muslims are hatching a conspiracy to kill Hindu sadhus, Chopra and his channel squandered an opportunity to educate viewers about the danger of fake news.