At VHP Rally in Delhi, BJP Legislators Call for Violence, Economic Boycott of Muslims

West Delhi MP Parvesh Singh Verma and Loni MLA Nand Kishore Gujjar were among the speakers at a ‘Virat Hindu Sabha‘ organised by the Vishva Hindu Parishad’s local unit on Sunday.

New Delhi: At a rally held in the national capital on Sunday, legislators from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gave calls for violence and the economic boycott of an unnamed community, while other speakers gave hate speeches that openly targeted Muslims.

The BJP leaders were addressing a ‘Virat Hindu Sabha‘ organised by the Vishva Hindu Parishad’s local unit and other organisations on Sunday. The meeting, held in Northeast Delhi’s Dilshad Garden, was to protest against the killing of a Hindu man by six Muslim men in East Delhi’s Sunder Nagri last week.

On October 2, the Delhi Police said the matter was not communal, was the product of “personal enmity”, and had appealed to the public to not give credence to rumours, noting that some people were spreading “misleading facts” on social media.

Speaking at the event, BJP MP from West Delhi, Parvesh Verma, called for the “total boycott” of “these people”. Though he did not mention any community, those present at the event applauded in agreement. When Verma asked, “Do you agree?”, the crowd responded in the affirmative. He then administered an oath asking the people to boycott the community.

“Wherever you see them, I say that if you want to set their minds straight … then there is only one remedy, that is complete boycott… Do you agree with this? Raise your hand if you agree. Say with me, we will completely boycott them, we will not buy any goods from their shops, we will not employ them,” he said, according to a translation provided by the Indian Express of the video which is viral on social media.

Verma told the newspaper that he did not name any religious community. “What I said was that the families whose members carry out such killings should be boycotted. Such families, if they run any restaurant or any business, should be boycotted. There have been such crimes in my area also. And in such cases, their business should be boycotted,” he said.

Verma has a history of making inflammatory speeches, including before the Delhi riots of 2020.

BJP MLA from Loni in UP, Nand Kishore Gujjar, speaking at the same event, called Mohammad Akhlaq – the man who was lynched in Dadri – a “pig” and made light of his 2015 murder.

He also boasted about bringing 2,500 supporters to Delhi during the Delhi riot of 2020 to “kill jihadis”.

Another speaker, Jagat Guru Yogeshwar Acharya, says, “Agar aise log humare mandiro… ko ungli dikhayee, unka ungli mat kaato, unka haath kaato. Agar zarurat pade, to unka gala bhi kaat do. Kya hoga? Ek ko phaansi hogi, do ko phaansi hogi…Hum sab bhi iska dhyan de… inko chun chun ke marne ka kaam karen (If such people point a finger at our temples, don’t cut his finger, cut off his hand. If needed, slit his throat too. What will happen? One or two persons will be hanged… Let us all pay attention to this… pick and kill them).”

According to the Indian Express, Acharya doubled down on his speech later, saying, “I will say this again and again… I am ready to be hanged for the sake of Hindu religion.”

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According to India Today, another speaker, Mahant Nawal Kishore Das, asked people to get guns – even without licences. “Get guns. Get licenses. If you dont get licences, dont worry. Those who come to kill you, do they have licences? So why do you need a licence?” he said.

“If we all come together, even the Delhi Police Commissioner will offer us tea and let us do what we want, he added in a brazen display of power and authority,” he added, according to the report.

VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal defended the speakers, claiming that the message was “towards jihadi elements and not towards any community”.

“People are angry. What they meant was, if need be, they can come out in self-defence against the jihadi elements,” he said, according to India Today.

Though there has been an outcry against the calls to violence and hate speeches, the Delhi police have not yet registered any case.