Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
NEW DELHI — More than a dozen activists from the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JJM) have filed a complaint against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and other leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for making hate speeches against Muslims during the election rallies in Jharkhand.
On Friday, the activists wrote a letter to the chief secretary L Khaingte and Director General of Police (DGP) Anurag Gupta demanding legal action against these leaders.
“For the past several days, the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Assam chief minister and many union ministers and BJP national and state level leaders have been continuously giving hate speeches in their election rallies in Jharkhand. They are targeting India Muslims by using the words ‘love jihad,’ land jihad and in the name of Bangladeshi infiltrators and are trying to create religious polarisation in the state. This is likely to spread hatred and communalism among various communities in Jharkhand,” reads the letter.
Addressing a rally in Jamshedpur two weeks ago, Modi accused the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led coalition government of “supporting” Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators for vote bank politics, and alleged that the tribal population is “rapidly decreasing” in Santhal Parganas region as these illegal migrants are establishing control over the panchayat system.
Earlier, JJMM has refuted the allegations of rising the infiltration of Bangladeshi and Rohingya describing it as communal propaganda.
The High Court, while hearing a PIL on infiltration, had ordered the setting up of a committee to look into the issue of the declining population of tribal communities in the Santhal Pargana region.
Reacting to the decision of the high court, civil rights group JJM had said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose worker had filed the PIL in the court on the issue, had linked land disputes and violence to Bangladeshi infiltrators.
Now, the group demanded immediate legal action against the BJP leaders as per the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court has given clear guidelines to take legal action against hate speech in several of its orders. We request you to take immediate legal action against any political leader in the state who gives hate speech to spread religious and communal hatred. We hope that you will keep an eye on all such speeches in the coming days and ensure that peace and communal harmony is maintained in the state,” noted the letter.
Social activists Ambika Yadav, Ajay Eleteer Aajy, Afzal Anees, Aloka Kujur, Dinesh Murmu, Elina Horo, Kumar Chandra Mardi, George Monpally, Manoj Bhuiya, Nandita Bhattacharya, Praful Linda, Praveer Peter, PM Tony, Raja Bharti, Siraj Dutta and Tom Kawla are the signatories to the letter.
According to their statement, the BJP leaders are trying to create religious hatred against Muslims among other communities on the basis of various false allegations in their election speeches.
“This is harmful for the fabric of Jharkhand society and communal harmony. It should be noted that the Central government has replied in Parliament that there are neither words like ‘Love Jihad’, ‘Land Jihad’ in the law nor are there any such cases. It should also noted that in the case related to Bangladeshi infiltration going on in the High Court, the Center has said in its affidavit that the involvement of Bangladeshi infiltrators has not been established in the recent land dispute cases of Santhal Pargana. In this regard, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha and Loktrantra Bachao Abhiyan had also found the same in their detailed fact-finding,” noted the statement.
