Several instances of hate speech in March and April mar the election cycle, demonise religious minorities before the polls (CJP)

In the run up to the elections we witnessed numerous incidents of hate speeches delivered across the country

By  CJP Team

Introduction

From Jammu to Bihar, and Gujarat to Uttarakhand, the spiral of hate speeches has not slowed down, with the first phase of election cycle beginning on April 19. From the middle of the March to first week of the April, we tracked and analysed 10 instances of hate speeches delivered by numerous leaders, including Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad’s Pravin Togadia, Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal chief Ankur Sharma, Bajrang Dal leader Vikas Varma, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Jaydeep Patel, social media influencer Khushbu Pandey, poet and motivational speaker Ram Bhadawar, and other leaders associated by Hindu Sena and VHP. The underlying themes remains more or less the same in most, with love jihad, land jihad, and alleged Islamisation dominating the discourse. Such incidents contribute to vitiated environment and disturb level-playing field in the already muzzled Lok Sabha election, apart from villainising a community, and sharply polarising the discourse on religious lines. 

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Additionally, this allows parties and candidates to unduly influence elections through proxy actors, without directly getting their hands dirty, thus avoiding the violation of model code of conduct and other relevant provisions of the law. While these bad actors themselves may face the wrath of the law and might be booked under relevant hate speech laws like IPC Section 153A and 505, the chances that they will be provided impunity by the political class cannot be rule out, as eventually the same representatives who may have benefited from polarised and hate-filled atmosphere are most likely to emerge winners in a majoritarian elections, vitiated through misinformation, disinformation, false conspiracy theories, and religious hatred towards the minorities. 

This story was originally published in cjp.org.in. Read the full story here.