Tag: Udaipur

Udaipur Stabbing: Victim Boy Cremated Amid Tight Security, Administration Appeals for Peace

Earlier, the Udaipur district administration had demolished the house where the minor accused’s family lived as tenants.

Jaipur: A 15-year-old boy who died after being stabbed by his classmate was cremated in Rajasthan’s Udaipur on Tuesday (August 20) amid tight security.

The boy was attacked by the minor accused at their school on August 16, with the latter stabbing and grievously injuring him. After undergoing treatment at a hospital for three days, the minor boy had breathed his last, with officials confirming his death by Monday (August 19) evening.

The incident, which officials said was a dispute between the two students, turned communal after Hindu outfits carried out massive protests demanding action against the accused minor as well as ‘bulldozer action.’

Several cars were torched by angry mobs, which resulted in the Udaipur district administration issuing prohibitory orders and suspending mobile internet services.

“The entire Udaipur city is with the family. The government did everything, it got teams of doctors from outside too, but despite all efforts he is no more with us. We are committed to supporting the family. It is our appeal that the public maintains peace,” Udaipur divisional commissioner Rajendra Bhatt told reporters on Monday while announcing the boy’s death.

The Rajasthan government has agreed to the family’s demands, which include a speedy trial in the case and compensation of Rs 51 lakh.

On Tuesday, thousands of people joined the boy’s funeral procession amid tight security.

The Rajasthan government has deployed a large number of police personnel in Udaipur to prevent the situation from worsening.

Earlier, the Udaipur district administration demolished the house where the accused’s family lived as tenants.

The demolition with bulldozers was carried out after Hindu outfits and BJP leaders demanded that Uttar Pradesh-like bulldozer action be taken in the case.

The administration said that the house was demolished because it was found to be illegally built on forest land.

However, Rashid Khan, the person who had purchased the house in 2019, questioned how the demolition notice could be given to the tenants. The house was bulldozed a day after the notice was issued.

While the Udaipur administration has maintained that prima facie, the stabbing of the boy was because of a dispute with the 15-year-old accused, Hindu outfits continued to protest over the incident because the victim was from the Hindu community and the accused minor being a Muslim.

Activists have slammed the demolition of the house and have written a letter to the chief justice of the Rajasthan high court in protest.

‘Goonda Raj’, Says PUCL After Home of Udaipur Boy Accused of Stabbing Demolished

“If this is allowed to be continued, we firmly believe that the day is not far when the executive will bulldoze even the courts of law who are passing orders against their government,” the Rajasthan chapter of the PUCL said in a letter to the state high court’s chief justice.

New Delhi: Rajasthan authorities’ demolishing the home where the family of a Muslim boy accused of stabbing his Hindu classmate lived on Saturday (August 17) amounts to “nothing less than goonda raj”, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has said in a letter to the chief justice of the Rajasthan high court.

News reports have said the state’s forest department issued a notice to the accused’s family on Saturday morning saying the house they lived in in Udaipur encroached on forest land.

According to the Rajasthan PUCL’s letter, the notice, which was dated Friday, gave the family time till Tuesday (August 20) to vacate their home, but the authorities demolished the house later on Saturday anyway.

“It is worthwhile to mention here that there are more than 200 houses constructed in the said locality; however, only the family of the juvenile in conflict with law is being targeted by the state authorities,” the PUCL said in its letter.

The rights organisation noted that the accused’s family was not given time to approach the high court and that the authorities’ “pick and choose” approach violated the family’s fundamental rights as well as the principles of natural justice.

“If this is allowed to be continued, we firmly believe that the day is not far when the executive will bulldoze even the courts of law who are passing orders against their government,” the PUCL wrote, alleging that the demolition gave a “communal colour” to the alleged stabbing.

Seeking Rajasthan high court CJ Justice M.M. Shrivastava’s intervention, the PUCL asked that he issue directions for the accused’s family to be rehabilitated.

It also demanded that “strict action” be taken against those officers that ordered the demolition and that the investigation in the case be monitored by the high court as the “police and administration have shown their extreme bias against the accused, even prior to the investigation”.

Internet services blocked, curfew in Udaipur after stabbing leads to communal tensions

According to news reports, the 15-year-old accused Muslim boy stabbed his Hindu classmate in a school in Udaipur on Friday.

He was later booked under the Juvenile Justice Act and his father was also arrested, news reports said, and the PUCL noted that the father’s arrest was for unknown reasons.

Hindu organisations then took to the streets to protest the stabbing and closed markets in the city, following which incidents of arson and stone-pelting also occurred, BBC Hindi reported.

Authorities imposed a curfew in the city and suspended some internet services for a day after the unrest broke out. They extended the internet clampdown by another day on Saturday because they were not able to control the spread of false or provocative content on social media, The Hindu reported.

Schools have been shut in the city until further notice.

A report in the Indian Express said that the Muslim boy’s family were tenants in their home, and a video that emerged after the incident shows a man identifying himself as their landlord saying that four other families also lived there.

The newspaper quoted a police officer as saying that the home’s owner “was not able to provide any form of ownership document”, following which it was destroyed on Saturday by a joint team of the forest department and the Udaipur municipal corporation.

First seen in Uttar Pradesh under chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who has been called “bulldozer baba”, the phenomenon of ‘bulldozer justice’ has since spread to Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Assam, Uttarakhand and Mumbai.

From demolitions following communal riots, to forced evictions over allegations of encroachment, this ‘bulldozer justice’ has defined the delivery of justice in the Modi years.

A Hindi Professor’s Harassment by ABVP Shows Near-Complete Takeover of Universities by RSS-BJP

We can praise the calmness and courage with which Dr Pandya faced the situation but no teacher should require this extraordinary bravery to be a teacher.

It is not just symbolic that a day before the swearing-in of the government under the leadership of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister, members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) entered the class of Dr. Himanshu Pandya at Mohanlal Sukhadia University in Rajasthan’s Udaipur, disrupted his class, and forced him out of the class and the campus. All the while calling him anti-Hindu and anti-national. He was not harmed physically and for that, we would be asked to be grateful to the ABVP members.

Dr. Pandya is a Hindi scholar and Professor and was invited by the university to give lectures on research methodology. This was his third and last class and he was concluding his lecture when the ABVP members entered the classroom with a sheaf of paper. They had dug up an old Facebook post by Dr. Pandya which he had titled “Smriti Babri Masjid.”

Written in January when Narendra Modi was leading the celebration of the consecration of a Ram temple built on the land of the now-demolished Babri Mosque, the post rightly criticized the whole drama and talked about the injustice and criminality involved in it.

The ABVP members said that a man who is so anti-Hindu and anti-national as to criticize this national achievement has no right to be at the university. Dr. Pandya tried to argue with them, asking them to wait till his class was over, but they were in no mood to listen to him. The students were scared into silence and the course coordinator kept requesting Dr. Pandya to come out as he was concerned for his safety. Dr. Pandya saw no point in being there as it was impossible to continue the lecture in the noise that the ABVP people were making.

Dr. Pandya left the campus alone. It is quite shocking that the college authorities did not think it necessary to even call the police and give security to Dr. Pandya and ensure that he reaches his house safely. That he was not harmed cannot be the argument for this callous approach.

One of the students, who was a Dalit, came with his bike and offered to take Dr. Pandya to his place of stay. The ABVP people took out his ignition key. He managed to take it back and convinced Dr. Pandya to allow him to take him home. Dr. Pandya did not want him to be harmed.

All the while, the ABVP people were making videos as doing violence is not enough for the Hindutvavadi gangs. They want to make it a spectacle and spread their violence among the larger population to make them participate in it and enjoy it.

After forcing him out of the campus, the ABVP gang went to the chamber of Prof. Sudha Chaudhary, a senior professor of Philosophy and the person in-charge of the course for which Dr. Pandya was invited. They wanted action against Dr. Pandya and those responsible for inviting him. Prof. Chaudhary has been a target of the ABVP for a very long time and they have tried to harass and attack her earlier too for her secular and independent stance.

Later, the ABVP members told the media that they had driven out a Pro-Palestine person from the campus. Dr. Pandya wrote on Facebook that he wanted to discuss it with the ABVP people and tell them that their own government was supporting the right of Palestinians to have their own state. But are the ABVP people even interested in discussion and dialogue?

Also Read: Where Are the ‘Don Quixotes’ of Indian Academia?

In the video, we can see Prof. Chaudhary telling the ABVP people that everyone has a right to have their opinion, but they refuse to listen to her. Later, one of them tells the media that they would ask the government to discipline teachers like Prof. Chaudhary and Dr. Pandya and make them sit at home and not allow them to pollute the minds of the students.

Their threat should be taken seriously. To understand where it can go, one has to recall an incident at the same university 9 years ago in which the ABVP and RSS people had burnt the effigies of Prof. Sudha Chaudhary and Prof. Ashok Vohra of the University of Delhi, who was invited by her to speak in a seminar on ‘Dharmik Samvad: Adhunik Anivaryata’ (Religious Dialogue: The Need in Contemporary Times).

The ABVP and RSS alleged that Prof. Vohra had insulted Hindu gods and goddesses. It is a different matter that poor Prof. Vohra was only quoting from the Western Indologists to critique them.

One can realize the absurdity of the situation when one recalls that the then education minister of Rajasthan ordered the university to file FIRs against Prof. Vohra and Prof. Chaudhary. He said, “I have read his script… this sort of vulgar, obscene language for Hindu gods and goddesses will not be tolerated, not in Rajasthan…”

We can laugh at his illiteracy, but the danger to the two Professors was real. Prof. Vohra had to make an appeal to the PM. As reported by the media, “Professor Ashok Vohra, former head of the department of philosophy at Delhi University, has now written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention and urging him to ‘keep the registration of an FIR against me in abeyance until the written lecture is read by some competent scholar to determine the import of its content’.”

Another incident from 2017 comes back to mind. Dr. Rajshri Ranawat of the department of English at Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur, had organized a seminar and invited Prof. Nivedita Menon to speak. Again, the RSS cohort ‘protested’ against their ‘anti-national’ views and FIRs were filed against them. It became worse for Dr. Ranawat who was promptly suspended by the university.

Since 2015-16, things have deteriorated in Rajasthan and other parts of the country where ABVP has become a law unto itself. It disrupts classes, lectures, film shows, exhibitions, and events it dubs as anti-national. The People’s Union for Civil Liberties, while condemning the humiliation of Dr. Pandya, has said that in all universities of Rajasthan it has become impossible to talk about secularism, equality, and freedom of expression. The fear of the ABVP and the administration, which in most cases turns into an accomplice of the ABVP, is such that no teacher wants to touch these issues.

Also Read: ABVP’s Pondicherry Violence Sparks Question: Why Can’t India Interpret Hindu Gods?

The latest incident of attack on Dr. Himanshu Pandya and his humiliation only tells us about the violent atmosphere in which academics are functioning in Rajasthan. Why only in Rajasthan? It is an all-India phenomenon now. We in the University of Delhi and other universities face it every day. University life is hostage to the wishes of the ABVP and the administration bows before it.

When you know that there are topics you cannot discuss on the campus, when you constantly watch your words, when you stop speaking or writing even on other forums because that can go against you, as we can see in the case of violence against Dr. Pandya, can we say that universities are living entities in India?

We can praise the calmness and courage with which Dr Pandya faced the situation but no teacher should require this extraordinary bravery to be a teacher. Not all teachers would be able to respond to the situation as Dr Pandya did. But that is how all of us are. We should not be made to face situations like this.

We’ll call it a case of violation of academic freedom. But it is much more than that. It is a near-total takeover of the universities and our lives by gangs affiliated with the RSS and the BJP. Will the ‘new’ political situation bring some change in it? As we can see from this incident of violence against Dr. Pandya, that remains a wish.

Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University.

Watch | ‘Congress Raipur Meet Neither Success Nor Failure; Lot More Needed For It to Revive’

Suhas Palshikar tells Karan Thapar that the crisis for the Congress party began in 1989 and it has never come out of it. With the passage of time, the challenge could be becoming “insurmountable”.

In a forthright interview where he analyses the challenge facing the Congress party and the effectiveness of Congress’s response, political analyst Suhas Palshikar says that the party’s Raipur plenary was “neither a success nor a failure”. Professor Palshikar added that an awful lot more is necessary if Congress is to revive. This is both in terms of the party’s ideological messaging as well as in terms of revitalising its organisation, which would require a far greater and more active role by Rahul Gandhi himself.

In a 35-minute interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, Palshikar, who is chief editor of studies in Indian Politics and co-director of Lokniti’s Programme for Comparative Democracy, began by identifying the challenge facing Congress. He said it is “to remain competitive in a multi-party federal polity.” The problem is that this is a challenge that has faced Congress for three decades since its defeat in 1989. He said the crisis for the Congress party began then and it has never come out of it. He added that with the passage of time the challenge could be becoming “insurmountable”.

In the interview, Palshikar first discusses the steps Congress has taken between the Udaipur Chintan Shivar of May 2022 and the Raipur Conclave. He says there are “three small achievements” to the party’s credit. They are, first, that bloodletting has stopped and there are no further major defections or splits. Second, the party has elected a new president. Third, it has agreed to reserve places in the CWC for women, youth, minorities and marginalised sections of the population. Please see the interview to understand why Palshikar calls these small achievements.

Thereafter, Palshikar discusses, at considerable length, both the organisational tasks and the task of political mobilisation that Congress must successfully tackle if it is to revive.

Speaking about the organisational tasks, Palshikar says the most important is “the democratisation of the functioning of the party”. Here the failure or refusal to hold CWC elections is particularly damaging.

The second organisational task is to fulfil the Udaipur commitment to one-family-one-post which, in fact, Palshikar believes has been quietly buried. He said this doesn’t simply apply to the Gandhi family. It “has more to do with the entrenched interests of many families that control local party units … this is more about the way local politics is conducted and thwarts the entry of young activists into competitive politics”.

Speaking about the tasks required to politically mobilise Congress, Palshikar talks about how it must go about forging alliances and why it must stop claiming that it will lead them.

Palshikar also speaks about Congress’s ideological message. He asks: “How is the party going to awaken the masses on questions of crony capitalism and communalism? This question remained unaddressed at the session … criticising the BJP … is easy but making sure that the average Hindu is convinced that being anti-Muslim is not necessary for being a good Hindu or a good nationalist is a difficult task.”

Right at the end of the interview, Palshikar talks at length about Rahul Gandhi. He believes that, theoretically, Rahul Gandhi has the capacity to determine the future of the party but, he adds, that will only happen if Rahul Gandhi goes about this in a very different way to the one he has presently adopted and at a greater speed. Again, rather than paraphrase Palshikar, please watch the interview to understand his critique of Rahul Gandhi.

One of the most important things in this interview (in the section where Palshikar is talking about how Congress must convey its ideological message about communalism) is the professor’s explanation of why he thinks Rahul Gandhi and Congress as a whole are doing this incorrectly. Here, Palshikar explains, in some detail, how Congress should tackle the challenge of Hindutva. In a nutshell, it’s not by flaunting its own Hindu credentials but by speaking about Hinduism and what it stands for and what it requires of its adherents in a very different way.

NIA Arrests 19-Year-Old Man in Kanhaiya Lal Murder, Taking Total to Eight

Mohammad Javed, a resident of Sindhi Sarkar Ki Haweli, Kheradiwala, was the eighth accused arrested in connection with the gruesome killing of Kanhaiya Lal.

New Delhi: A 19-year-old man, who allegedly played an “important role” in the conspiracy to kill a tailor in Rajasthan’s Udaipur last month, has been arrested from the state, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) official said on Friday.

Mohammad Javed, a resident of Sindhi Sarkar Ki Haweli, Kheradiwala, was the eighth accused arrested in connection with the gruesome killing of Kanhaiya Lal by two assailants armed with sharp-edged weapons at his shop in Udaipur’s Maldas street, a spokesperson of the NIA said.

“Mohammad Javed, who was arrested on Thursday, played an important role in the conspiracy to kill Lal by conducting reconnaissance and passing on the information about the victim’s presence at the shop to the main killer, Riyaz, prior to the attack,” he said.

Lal was killed with a cleaver inside his tailoring shop on June 28 and the NIA took over the case the next day. Earlier, seven accused, including the main culprits, were arrested during separate raids on June 29, July 1, July 4 and July 9.

The gruesome attack by Riaz Akhtari on the tailor was recorded on a mobile phone by Ghouse Mohammad and the video was posted online.

In another video, the duo said they hacked Lal to death to avenge an alleged insult to Islam. Both were arrested within hours of the killing.

(PTI)

Watch Out for Mobs at the Gate

Our clever Chanakyas are deluding themselves by thinking they can control and calibrate the religious madness they have unleashed.

On Saturday, a mob in Colombo stormed the offices of the prime minister and the president, a signal not just of a breakdown of order but also of a complete defeat of the constitutional processes at work in Sri Lanka. The denouement was an inevitable byproduct of decades of a politics that was predicated on majoritarian triumphalism. Economic mismanagement and chaos are a mere reflection of a polity that long ago abandoned any kind of notion of equilibrium in its governing arrangements. 

Just about the time mobs were gathering in Colombo, another crowd was snaking its way from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. The crowd was summoned by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) but the Delhi BJP leadership was also in attendance. The New Delhi mob did not cause any kind of disorder but it did serve notice, as per the headline in the Indian Express: “Chorus at march by Hindu outfits: India will be run as per Constitution, not Sharia.”

This, of course, is from the same corner that not long ago used to argue that a “dharma sansad” of revered saints and sadhus carried greater weightage than a “sansad” elected by the sovereign people of India. Maybe the unstated theme of the so-called “Sankalp March” was to express disapproval of the recent comments two sitting judges of the Supreme Court had made on the now-suspended BJP spokesperson, Nupur Sharma.

The show of street power was a continuation of a much larger but much more subtle assault underway on the Supreme Court. Only a few days earlier, it may be recalled, as many as 117 former judges, ex-bureaucrats, and retired military generals felt agitated enough to go hammer and tongs at the two sitting judges of the Supreme Court for their comments from the bench on the enormity of the BJP functionary’s rhetorical excesses. This exertion was yet another reminder that in the aftermath of the Udaipur killing, our collective sanity is on the verge of becoming unhinged. 

The statement from these “concerned citizens” clearly carries the imprimatur and the inspiration of the higher echelons of the governing cabal. And the people who have consented to append their names and signatures to this statement will not object if they are to be described as establishment men. It is an expression of the increasing impatience among the ruling elites with any individual or institution that does not fall in line with the official orthodoxy. This kind of ideologically-determined righteousness is, of course, a familiar failing in all authoritarian or quasi-authoritarian systems. 

The central concern of all democratic forces and constitutional voices ought to be to avoid a Sri Lanka-style breakdown in our country; in other words, how do we prevent an ultra-aggressive executive from tipping over from the weight of its arrogance and megalomania? 

The ruling coterie is entitled to think that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presumed charisma and manufactured popularity elevate him and his government above the constitutionally-mandated structure of restraints and constraints. Yet, the primary legitimacy any prime minister in India enjoys can only be located firmly within the four walls of the constitution, and what that constitution permits or does not permit can only be decided by the Supreme Court. And, it is hardly secret that in recent years the authority of the apex court has been qualitatively mauled  – partly because our judicial leadership had allowed itself to become too overawed by the political momentum of the day. Can the lost judicial authority be retrieved?

The question has acquired an urgency because ever since the US Supreme Court has, in the Dobbs case,  provided so much comfort and joy to the conservative forces in that deeply divided country, the (essentially copy-cat) right-wing in India is itching to bend the apex court to its partisan passions and prejudices. These over-driven right-wingers would like to overhaul the constitution and the Supreme Court and make them instruments of their narrow agenda. 

The other day, Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana had bemoaned the fact that both government and opposition find fault with the judiciary for not helping them carry on their partisan politics. The lament is not without merit. No judge or judiciary should get involved in the politicians’ quarrels; after all. It is not the judiciary’s job to make up for the opposition’s inadequacies nor should it ever take lightly its role as a bulwark of constitutional reasonableness, especially if the government insists on being politically contemptuous of the opposition’s space and privileges in our parliamentary system.  

The Supreme Court. In the foreground is Lakhimpur Kheri, a day after eight people were killed in October 2021. Photos: PTI

More than playing an intrepid third umpire between government and opposition, the higher judiciary in a democratic nation ought to be a sensitive guardian of the citizen and her rights and liberties against an increasingly insensitive and overweening executive. If India has continued and prospered as a substantive democracy it is because the Supreme Court, from the very beginning, did not allow a runaway government to trample over the fundamental rights of citizens guaranteed by the constitution. Post-2014, sadly, the court has been less than vigilant on behalf of the citizen and too solicitous of the concerns and arguments of a political executive that is gently nudging the nation towards deeply debilitating divisions. This failing has had harmful consequences.

Politically instigated, electorally driven grandstanding has become all too consuming in the age of social media. The Nupur Sharma virus has infected our body politic and extreme elements in all religious communities are pushing out saner and sober voices. Our clever Chanakyas may delude themselves that they can control and calibrate the religious madness they have unleashed. But when a political crowd starts feeling and acting as if it has all the country’s institutions lined up behind it, the only corrective is provided by the mobs of the kind that have taken over Colombo. That is why it is in everybody’s interest that the Supreme Court retrieve its lost judicial authority, and do so quickly.

MP: In Right-Wing Protests Against Udaipur Murder, Calls for Violence Against Muslims

A case has been registered against four members of a right-wing group in Sagar for threatening the Muslim community.

Bhopal: In the days after Kanhaiya Lal was brutally killed in Udaipur, provocative slogans and threats of violence were issued at protest marches held by various right-wing groups between June 29 and July 1.

Lal, a tailor, was hacked to death in his shop on June 28. The prime accused in his killing are Riyaz Attari and Ghouse Mohammad. The duo claimed responsibility for the killing in an online video saying the tailor was killed to “avenge” Prophet Muhammad. Lal had made a social media post in support of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, who had made controversial remarks against the Islamic religious figure. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the probe into the case.

Close to 100 protests and rallies were held in Madhya Pradesh after the central committee of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) issued an advisory asking its members to hold state-wide protests against the Udaipur killing on June 29 and 30. The units were also asked to send memorandums to the President of India, said Kundan Chandrakar, the VHP’s prachar pramukh (publicity in-charge) for the Malwa region.

In the two-page memorandum, the VHP blamed the Congress-led government in Rajasthan for Lal’s killing and demanded Rs 5 crore ex-gratia to his family, an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation and sacking of the Rajasthan government to impose President’s rule.

Members of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal with the support of local right-wing outfits jointly held protests across the state. They burnt effigies of ‘terrorists’ – which were simply a figure dressed in green cloth with a skull cap – or Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

Rajesh Tiwari, the VHP’s Madhya Pradesh legal head, said, “We held protests across the state, burnt effigies of either Ashok Gehlot or terrorists and handed over memorandums to the district officials demanding stern action against both the accused.”

Tiwari emphasised that these protests were peaceful and were organised only to condemn the killing. Nonetheless, the videos of the various protests led by the VHP and Bajrang Dal run contrary to Tiwari’s claim. 

Additionally, the rallies were held when many districts have imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the model code of conduct is in place because of the ongoing civic body polls.

Hate speech at protests

The Sagar district of the Mahakaushal region witnessed a protest led by the VHP and Bajrang Dal on June 29 at the district collector’s office with slogans like “Jab k***e kate jayenge, tab Ram Ram chillayenge [When (a slur for Muslims) are killed, they will shout Ram Ram).”

In one of the videos of the protest, Kapil Swami of the Vishwa Hindu Mahasabha can be heard saying, “If half of the Hindus (40 crore) took to the streets, then this country would be declared a Hindu Rashtra that day.” 

He also said, “Hindus of Sagar are not that weak that they can’t avenge the death of a Hindu. There would not be any protests or memorandums if any incident [in which Muslims are accused] takes place in Sagar. The entire community will pay the price for the crime.”

Swami made similar provocative slogans on October 24 last year at Sagar’s Teen Batti square.

In a written complaint, locals accused him and others of raising provocative slogans against the Muslim community in a bid to disrupt the peace and hurt their sentiments. “They not only raised slogans but also posted it on social media. Their recent social media posts are full of hatred for the community,” the complaint to the Kotwali Police station says.

Even after this, no action was taken against the men.

As the video of the protest went viral, the Sagar police lodged an FIR against four named and “others” under sections 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by public servant) and 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Gopalganj police station.

Confirming it, Gopalganj town inspector Kamal Singh said, “Police have filed a suo motu FIR against four named people on the basis of videos of the protest in which they were threatening a particular community and held a rally without permission while Section 144 is in place.”

The investigation is underway and the accused are absconding, he added.

Similarly in the Khandwa district, where VHP members held a protest on Tuesday afternoon near Ghanta Ghar, raised slogans such like “Jihadiyo ke kabar khudenge Khandwa ki dharti par (The graves of jihadis will be dug in the land of Khandwa).”

In Indore, Rajesh Bijve of the Bajrang Dal allegedly provoked people during a protest held at Malwa Mill Square on June 30. Speaking to the media, he threatened to “repeat 2002” – a reference to the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat – to “teach” the minority community a lesson. “Whatever Nupur Sharma said is right and we Bajrang Dal stand for it. It’s time for Hindus to hit the streets and take our revenge,” he said.

While in the tribal-majority Mandla district, Awdesh Pratap of the VHP also made similar provocative statements.

Speaking to reporters, he said, “VHP and Bajrang Dal will not burn effigies anymore but take revenge for incidents like the Udaipur killing by beheading them. Today’s Hindus cannot be suppressed and will take revenge in their own way.”

Similar slogans and threats were allegedly issued in Rajgarh and other districts.

Rajesh Tiwari, the legal head of VHP Madhya Pradesh, told The Wire that he is neither aware of any provocative slogans or calls to violence nor is he aware of the FIR lodged against four right-wing men in Sagar.

Congress spokesperson K.K. Mishra told The Wire that people are entitled to hold protests with the permission of the district administration and have the right to condemn the killing of Kanhaiya Lal. “The Congress party too condemns it and the Rajasthan government is taking all necessary steps to punish the offenders. But giving hateful speeches and threatening a community in the garb of protest can’t be justified. District authorities must take action against such people,” he said.

He also suggested that among the BJP-ruled states, the protests have been most intense in Madhya Pradesh because the state is in election season. “Panchayat polls are underway in Madhya Pradesh and the state is going for assembly polls next year. The protests were held to polarise voters,” he said.

Despite repeated attempts, the additional director general (law and order) of Madhya Pradesh police, Sajid Farid Shapoo was not available for comment.

Hours after the news of Kanhaiya’s killing, Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra released a video on Twitter saying, “I saw the video, it is gruesome. I have asked the director-general of police to keep an eye out but there is no issue in Madhya Pradesh. The state is peaceful.” 

Mishra then went on to accuse the Congress government in Rajasthan of allowing the state to be “Talibanised”. “The morale of terrorist are high,” said Mishra.

Kashif Kakvi is a journalist with Newsclick.

As Photos Emerge of Udaipur Killer’s Links to BJP Leaders, Party Moves to Damage Control Mode

Well before the savage killing of Kanhaiyalal, BJP functionaries had posted photos of themselves and others with Riyaz Attari, describing the man as a “dedicated worker of BJP”. Now the claim being put out is that Attari was trying to “infiltrate” the party.

New Delhi: Riyaz Attari, the man who filmed himself brutally murdering a tailor in Udaipur named Kanhaiyal this week to avenge an alleged insult to the Prophet, was described by a local Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader as a “dedicated worker of the BJP” in a Facebook post less than two years ago.

Irshad Chainwala and Mohammad Tahir are influential members of the Rajasthan State BJP Minority Morcha and the RSS-promoted Muslim Rashtriya Manch and their Facebook timelines have photographs of Attari posing next to the BJP’s leader in the Rajasthan assembly Gulab Chand Kataria (see above) and senior Udaipur BJP leader Ravindra Shrimali (see below). Other posts show Attari attending BJP events wearing a party scarf and being garlanded by Chainwala and Tahir.

In some of these posts by the two BJP men, Attari, who is easily recognisable, has also been identified by name and described as an activist of the party.

News of the connection between the killer – who has now been charged with terrorist offences by the National Investigation Agency and the Rajasthan Police, along with his accomplice Ghouse Mohammad – was broken by India Today on Friday evening with a headline claiming that the Udaipur duo “may have plotted to infiltrate Rajasthan BJP”.

However, that claim of attempted “infiltration” – which is not sourced to any BJP leader or security official – appears to be the TV channel’s own spin and is belied by the BJP functionaries’ own Facebook posts describing Attari as a party worker. Ordinarily, evidence of such connections with killers ends up damaging the reputation of the politician and party involved.  But a whole day after the India Today story, there seems to be little evidence of any media appetite for a follow up.

India Today said that Chainwala admitted knowing Attari and being photographed with him. He said that Attari used to attend BJP events but usually came on his own and was “uninvited”. But he also added, according to the TV channel,  that he “got into BJP events” through Mohammad Tahir, “whom [he] described as a party worker.” Sources in Udaipur told The Wire that Tahir is no ordinary worker, given his proximity to Kataria.

Chainwala attempted to distance Attari from his party by claiming, according to India Today, that though “he said he wanted to work with the party…  privately, Riyaz was a harsh critic of the BJP… he would oppose the party bitterly in private conversations with friends.”

Curiously, the BJP leader was not confronted with the claim – made in a Faceboook post by fellow member of Udaipur BJP minority cell Mohammad Tahir on November 28, 2019 – that Attari was a “karyakarta”, or activist, of the BJP.

Screenshot of Facebook post of Mohammad Tahir, November 28, 2019.

Another of Tahir’s posts shows Attari with Ravindra Shreemali, head of the BJP in Udaipur. Tahir identifies Attari by name.

Screenshot of Mohammad Tahir’s Facebook post of February 3, 2019, shows Riyaz Attari at the far left and Irshad Chainwala felicitating Ravindra Shreemali, head of the BJP in Udaipur.

The Wire spoke to Shreemali, who denied meeting Attari or knowing him. He said it is hard to keep track of people in a crowd. He denied Attari had any connection to the BJP but added, “Of course, I am ready to face any investigation.”

Kataria was unavailable when The Wire tried to reach him but he was quoted  by News24 as saying he had no connection to Riyaz Attari. “Anyone can come to a public programme.”

In one photograph from November 2018, posted on Chainwala’s Facebook page, Attari can seen standing amongst a group of BJP supporters with Chainwala and Tahir. Attari is the man sixth from the left, wearing a BJP scarf. 

Screenshot from November 2018 of a post on Irshad Chainwala’s Facebook page.

A scan of Tahir and Irshad’s social media shows their strong connection with influential leaders of the BJP and RSS. There are several photos of Irshad and Tahir with Kataria, RSS leader Indresh Kumar and other leaders of the Rajasthan BJP. 

Tahir and Riyaz Attari have posted meme pictures together and featured in several photos. In the pictures posted above, he and Chainwala can be seen garlanding Riyaz, who had returned from his Umra Pilgrimage from Saudi Arabia in 2019.

Neither Chainwala nor Tahir were available for comment at the time of filing this story.

Apart from Tahir and Irshad, The Wire found that two men, Rohil Pathan and Asalam Hussain, had commented on almost every picture in which Riyaz featured. We found that the two were also linked to the BJP and the Muslim Rashtriya Manch. 

NIA vs Rajasthan Police on terror charge

Further complicating what had started out as a simple story of two men – followers of the Barelvi sect, one of whom had visited the Dawat-e-Islami markaz in Karachi in 2014 – who had become radicalised to such an extent that they could commit murder on the pretext of opposing blasphemy is the tussle between the Rajasthan Police and the NIA on the terrorist nature of the offence.

Rajasthan Police press note, July 1, 2022.

On Friday, the Rajasthan Police issued a press note describing as “premature” claims made by unidentified NIA officials in a section of the media that Kanhaiyal’s murder was the product of passion rather than terrorist conspiracy.

Udaipur: 32 Police Officers Transferred Amid Criticism Surrounding Murder of Kanhaiya Lal

The police had come under heavy criticism following tailor Kanhiaya Lal’s murder on Tuesday for failing to act on his complaints of receiving death threats.

New Delhi: In the aftermath of the killing of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Rajasthan’s Udaipur on Tuesday, June 28, 32 officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS) have been transferred.

A number of senior officers also feature in the list of transfers, including the inspector general of police (IGP) and the Udaipur superintendent of police (IPS), according to a report by NDTV.

Lal, 48, was killed by two individuals – Riaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad – for sharing on Twitter the derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammad made by suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nupur Sharma last month.

After Lal’s murder, the Udaipur police had come under heavy criticism for failing to pay heed to Lal’s reported allegations that he had been facing death threats after the post was shared from his handle. The police had even arrested Lal for the post, but had later released him.

Also read: ‘Barbaric’, ‘Gruesome’: English Editorials Unanimously Condemn Killing Of Tailor In Udaipur

Following the brutal killing, the two perpetrators had released a video in which they claimed that the act had been committed to “avenge an insult to islam”, an ostensible reference to Sharma’s remarks being shared by Lal.

In the video, the two accused were also seen threatening Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Subsequently, one of the two accused was found by the Rajasthan police to have had links with the Pakistan-based Dawat-e-Islami organisation. The police also said that the accused had visited Karachi in 2014.

“One of the accused, Ghouse Mohammad, has links with the Karachi-based Islamist organisation Dawat-e-Islami. He had visited Karachi in 2014. So far, we have detained five people, including the two prime accused,” Rajasthan director general of police (DGP) M.L. Lather had said.

The case how been transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and will be investigated in conjunction with the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Rajasthan Police.

On Thursday, June 30, the two accused were produced before a local court and sent to 14-day judicial custody. A total of five others have been detained in the case so far.

In the aftermath of the incident, Lather said that an assistant sub-inspector had been suspended for failing to take appropriate action in the case. Now, amid the heavy criticism being levied against the state police, 32 more officers have been transferred.

Protests were seen in Udaipur in the days that followed the killing, in light of which heavy police presence has been deployed in the region and curfews have been imposed.

Udaipur Killing: One Prime Accused Has Links to Pakistan-Based Islamic Group, Say Police

The Rajasthan police say Ghouse Mohammad visited Karachi in 2014. The Dawat-e-Islami is an organisation of Sunni Barelvis and the assassin of (west) Punjab governor Salman Taseer in January 2011 was linked by Pakistani investigators to the D-e-I.

New Delhi: Preliminary investigation into the brutal killing of Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor in Udaipur, revealed that one of the two prime accused has links with the Pakistan-based Dawat-e-Islami organisation and had visited Karachi in 2014, the police in Rajasthan said on  Wednesday.

Disclosing this information at a press conference in Jaipur, Rajasthan director general of police (DGP) M.L. Lather added that the police have detained three more people in connection with the killing.

The prime accused have been identified as Riaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad.

While the former hacked Kanhaiya Lal to death with a machete at his shop in Udaipur on Tuesday, the latter recorded the killing. They later posted videos online, saying they are “avenging an insult to Islam” – an apparent reference to Lal extending support to BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, who made controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad during a television debate last month.

“One of the accused, Ghouse Mohammad, has links with the Karachi-based Islamist organisation Dawat-e-Islami. He had visited Karachi in 2014. So far, we have detained five people, including the two prime accused,” Lather said.

The Dawat-e-Islami is a Sunni organisation influential among the Barelvi sect of Islam. In 2011, the Karachi newspaper Dawn reported that Mumtaz Hussain Qadri – assassin of the then governor of the Pakistani province of Punjab, Salman Taseer – had “links” to the Dawat-e-Islami organisation.

The Sunni Tehreek, an offshoot of the Dawat-e-Islami, is a banned terrorist organisation in Pakistan. Another offshoot of the D-e-I is the Tehreek-e-Labbaik, founded by Khadim Hissain Rizvi. Though the outfit has contested elections in Pakistan, it has also been banned under Pakistan’s anti-terror laws. Its leaders have called for the killing of persons charged with blasphemy and also of the three judges who released a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, wrongly accused of the offence.

Earlier, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot had revealed that the police had registered a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The murder was “meant to spread terror”, he said, adding that information has surfaced that the killers have contacts abroad.

The case will be investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Rajasthan Police will fully cooperate with the probe agency, he said.

Gehlot made the remarks after charing a high-level meeting in which he reviewed the situation in Udaipur.

Official sources said the chief minister has also convened an all-party meeting at the his residence at 6 pm on Wednesday over the killing.

Kanhaiya Lal was murdered on Tuesday by two men who subsequently posted videos online where they claimed they were avenging an insult to Islam. The incident triggered stray cases of violence in Udaipur and curfew was clamped in seven police station areas of the city.

Lal was cremated on Wednesday in the presence of a large number of people.

“A high-level review meeting was held today on the Udaipur incident. Police officials said preliminary investigation has revealed that the incident was prima facie done to spreading terror” Gehlot tweeted.

“The police and the administration should ensure law and order in the entire state and take strict action against those trying to create nuisance,” he said.

It has also been decided to give out-of-term promotion to five policemen – Tejpal, Narendra, Shaukat, Vikas and Gautam – who were prompt in arresting the accused involved in the Udaipur incident, the chief minister said.

NIA to take over case

The Union home ministry has directed the National Investigation Agency to take over the investigation of the brutal murder.

“The involvement of any organisation and international links will be thoroughly investigated,” the office of Union home minister Amit Shah tweeted on Wednesday, June 29.

The Union home ministry has dispatched a team of the NIA to Udaipur, PTI has reported.

The Rajasthan Police has also announced a special investigation team (SIT) soon after the arrest of Riaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad.

Areas under the jurisdiction of seven police stations are under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Mobile internet services are suspended across all 33 districts of Rajasthan. The city of Udaipur is under heavy police cover.

Meanwhile, an ASI has been suspended.

“Suspension of one ASI is not enough. Action against the SP should be taken. It was his failure that the local police failed to ensure security of Kanhaiya Lal despite threat to his life,” leader of opposition Gulab Chand Kataria told reporters here.

In a video clip, Akhtari declared that they had beheaded the man and went on to threaten Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indirectly, the assailants also referred to Nupur Sharma, the BJP leader suspended from the party over a remark on Prophet Mohammad.

One of the accused in the case, Riyaz, had filmed another video on June 17, stating that this video will be out “on the day he would have beheaded those who have insulted Prophet Mohammad.” In the video accessed by The Wire, he asks others to carry out similar actions in the state.

Victim was recently arrested

The victim, Lal, had recently been arrested by the local police.

The Wire has learnt that he was taken into custody on the June 11 in connection with a social media post on Islam, which was deemed objectionable by police.

Two letters by Lal to the police have surfaced. Both were dated June 15. In one, Lal appealed to the police at Dhanmandi station to initiate action and grant him protection from threats.

In his letter, Lal stated that while playing with his phone, a child had mistakenly posted objectionable content on Facebook.

Lal states that he was summoned by the station on the basis of a complaint filed against him by his neighbour. He adds that the neighbour had stated that the complaint had been filed “owing to the pressure from the community.”

Lal categorically stated that he was being threatened, was not being able to open his shop and that people had been visiting his shop to threaten him.

However, in another letter produced on the same day, he stated that a compromise had been reached with members of the community and that he no longer wants an investigation.

Police account of letters

Additional Director General of Police Law and Order Hawa Singh Ghumaria has confirmed that a case was registered against Lal for posting “objectionable remarks on social media” on June 10 and that “he was arrested like other such cases and presented in court.”

After being released on bail from the court, on June 15, Kanhaiya Lal reached the police station and said that he was getting death threats.

Police have claimed that the local station house officer, immediately after receiving this report, called leaders of both communities to the police station. After talks between the two sides, a mutual settlement was reached, said police.

After the settlement, Lal submitted a second handwritten report stating that no further action was required in this matter.

The ADG said that the persons who came to the settlement are also being questioned by the police.