Haridwar: In yet another attack on minorities, a group of Muslims were denied the right to visit a “holy river” at Ganga Ghat in Haridwar, Uttarakhand.
The incident shows how even rivers have been divided based on religion by self-proclaimed guardians.
In a 45-second viral video, a young man can be seen driving group of Muslims including women away from the ghat.
The young man can be heard saying that “only Hindus are allowed on the Ganga Ghats”.
The video is said to be from Agrasen Ganga Ghat in Jwalapur area.
The man can be seen and heard fighting with Muslims standing near the ghat, rudely and sternly asking them to leave.
However, this is not the first time Muslims were targeted in Uttarakhand.
From May 26 till June 7 – at least 10 towns including Purola, Uttarkashi, Mori, Naugaon, Barkot, Chinyalisaur, Dunda, Damta, Netwar, Dehradun and Sankri have witnessed, strikes, hate rallies, physical attacks, calls for vacating the area, solely targeted towards Muslims.
On June 5, posters threatening Muslim traders to shut their shops and vacate the area before the scheduled Mahapanchayat by June 15 surfaced in Purola town.
The posters bearing the name of ‘Devbhoomi Raksha Abhiyan’, a controversial hindutva organization, written in Hindi reads, “Love Jihadiyon ko suchit kiya jata hai ki dinak 15 June 2023 ko hone wali Mahapanchayat hone se purv apni dukene khali karden, yadi tumhare dwara esa nahi kiya jata to wo waqt par nirbhar karega. (This is to inform love jihadis that they should vacate their shops prior to the scheduled Mahapanchayat on June 15, if you fail to do so, the consequences depend on time).”
Earlier in December 2021, hate comments were made during a three-day event in Haridwar.
The conclave was organized by Yati Singhanand, a controversial Hindutva member infamous for his hate speech.
During the three-day event, the Hindu right-wing members including Sadhvi Annapurna Maa, Dharamdas Maharaj, Anand Swaroop Maharaj, Swami Sagar Sindhuraj, Swami Prabodanand Giri, Swami Premanand Maharaj, BJP member, Ashwini Upadhyay, and the party’s Mahila Morcha member, Udita Tyagi, called for a Hindu Raj and violence against Muslims.
In August 2021, Upadhyay was arrested in connection with an event where inflammatory slogans calling for violence against Muslims were shouted at a rally in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
In the three-day anti-Muslim event, the controversial BJP member presented a “bhagwa samvidhaan” or a saffron constitution.
“Nothing is possible without weapons and we have to carry knife or sword to kill them if you want to eliminate the population kill Muslims. If 100 of us are ready to kill 20 lakh Muslims then we will win and make India a Hindu Rashtra. Be ready to kill and go to jail,” one of the members Sadhvi Annapurna Maa, told the gathering.
Another member Dharamdas Maharaj from Bihar said, “if I would have been present in Parliament in 2006 where ex-PM Manmohan Singh said that the minorities have the first right over the national resources, I would have followed Nathuram Godse, I would have shot six times in his chest with a revolver”.
Suresh Chavhanke, the editor-in-chief of the Hindi television news channel called Sudarshan News, was seen administering an oath to a large crowd of people, in which he says, “We make a resolution until our last breath, we will make India a Hindu nation, and keep it a Hindu-only nation. We will fight and die if required, we will kill as well.”
Swami Prabodhanand Giri, the president of the Hindu Raksha Sena, a right-wing organization in Uttarakhand, as shown in the video, claimed, “Every Hindu must pick up weapons and we will have to conduct this cleanliness drive (safai abhiyan). There is no solution apart from this.”
