DEHRADUN — Days after inflammatory remarks by Bhupesh Joshi, the Uttarakhand state president of Kali Sena, another speech targeting Muslims has surfaced from Dehradun’s Bairagiwala area. In the video, Hindu Raksha Dal president Lalit Sharma allegedly calls for violence against Muslims, including references to unborn children.
The remarks were made in the aftermath of the June 13 killing of Vinod Kumar Kashyap, a BJP OBC Morcha leader who died during a violent clash reportedly linked to a dispute over irrigation water from a government tube well.
The incident triggered tensions in the area and was followed by protests by several Hindu organisations. Reports of arson and stone-pelting were recorded in a Muslim-majority locality.
After Hindu mob allegedly set fire to the house of the accused, authorities later demolished the property, citing illegal encroachment.
Speaking to media persons after Kashyap’s death, Sharma called for the killing of four Muslims for every Hindu killed. He also made remarks targeting Muslim women and unborn children, stating that they would “try to kill even the unborn child in the womb.”
At the same gathering, VHP-Bajrang Dal leader Aman Swedia called for “blood for blood” and accused members of the Muslim community in connection with the incident. Sharma was also heard using abusive language against Muslims.
Videos of the speeches have since gone viral on social media, prompting widespread condemnation and renewed calls for an investigation into whether the statements violate laws relating to hate speech and incitement to violence.
The remarks have drawn criticism from activists, political leaders, and citizens, many of whom argue that the speeches amount to an open call for violence against a religious community.
Hate speech normalised in BJP’s ‘Viksit Bharat’
Reacting to the incident, Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said the remarks reflected what she described as the growing normalisation of hate speech in the country.
“This is what the BJP’s so-called Viksit Bharat looks like: hate speech normalized to the extent that even unborn Muslim children are threatened. Homes and mosques are demolished with impunity, while Muslims, Christians, Dalits and Adivasis are increasingly pushed to the margins. Ongoing silence in the face of such rhetoric only emboldens those who seek to divide our society,” she wrote on X.
Several social media users also questioned the lack of action against Sharma. One user described the remarks as incitement to violence against minorities and asked why no action had been taken despite the public nature of the speech.
Another user wrote, “A terrorist named Lalit Sharma, who is currently being sheltered by the Indian government, is threatening to kill Muslim women by ripping out their wombs and inciting massacres of minorities, and no one is taking action against him.”
Others condemned the comments targeting Muslim women and unborn children, describing them as evidence of a dangerous and dehumanising ideology with no place in a democratic society.
One social media user wrote, “This guy named Lalit Sharma from Uttarakhand is saying that Muslim women’s stomachs should be ripped open and their babies killed. He is issuing threats. These people have such a cruel ideology. Just think about the state of affairs in free India. This is an animal nurtured by the government. Shameful.”
The controversy comes amid heightened communal tensions in Bairagiwala following Kashyap’s death.
At the time of writing, authorities had not publicly announced any action regarding the remarks, even as demands for accountability continued to grow.
