Speakers at a convention of Hindutva groups held earlier this month in Bengaluru described Muslims as a cancer and that they were taking over the country “like a disease”, The Wire reported on Wednesday.
The remarks were made at the Bengaluru District Hindu Rashtra Convention on May 8. The event was held at the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Community Hall in the city’s Rajaji Nagar area.
A man named Zia Nomani has filed a complaint at the Sanjay Nagara police station on May 16.
Nomani has alleged that Mohan Gowda, a spokesperson for Hindutva organisation Hindu Janajagruti Samiti said at the event: “They [Muslims] are taking over our country like a disease. For one Hindu child, there are five Muslim children. Yet Muslims are the minority. That is why we have organised this meeting to make people aware that we need a Hindu Rashtra.”
Nomani complained that another speaker, lawyer GM Nataraj, alleged that the azaan is a call “from mosques for every Muslim to wake up and pray and resolve that they will kill others”.
The complainant alleged that S Bhaskaran, the chief of another organisation named Vishwa Sanatan Parishad, described Muslims as a cancer and accused them of engaging in “land jihad” – a term used by Hindutva groups for a conspiracy theory about Muslims taking over neighbourhoods.
Members of the audience at the convention also asked speakers if they could legally refuse to rent out their houses to Muslims, and how they could convince residents in their neighbourhood not to buy items from Muslim-owned grocery shops, Boom Live reported.
Last month, Nomani had also filed a complaint against Hindu Janajagruti Samiti coordinator Chandru Moger. According to Nomani, Moger had urged Hindus to boycott Muslim fruit-sellers, and accused them of engaging in “spit jihad”.
Initially, the police had only filed a non-cognisable report, and they filed a first information report only after a Bengaluru court gave directions to do so, according to The Wire.
However, Moger has not yet been arrested.
In his complaint against the Bengaluru District Hindu Rashtra Convention, Nogar alleged that police inaction in Moger’s case had emboldened Hindutva groups to organise more such events.
This article first appeared on scroll.in