By SABRANGINDIA
On February 25, a ‘Hindu Jan Aakrosh Morcha’ was taken out in Mira Road area of Thane, Maharashtra. The chief speaker at this event was BJP MLA T. Raja Singh. Singh, who had granted conditional permission to deliver a speech at the said rally, could be seen using anti-Muslim slur and provocative words. Through his speech, the videos of which have gone viral, Singh spread misinformation and disinformation in the name of Maharashtrian revered Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. In a distorted re-telling of the tales of Shivaji Maharaj and his son Sambhaji Maharaj, Singh targeted the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. Singh selectively told the stories of Shivaji Maharaj where an Islamic ruler was involved in order to spread propaganda and hatred against the religious minority community. The issue of temples being demolished and mosques being built over them was raised again and again by the habitual hate-speaker to incite his audience. Referring to the recently inaugurated Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, and the violent act of demolition of the Babri Mosque, the BJP leader called for repeating the same in mosques present in Kashi and Mathura towns.
In the 40-minute-long speech, Singh also referred to other contentious topics such as the law on Citizenship Amendment Act and Uniform Civil Code. In order to paint the Muslim community as a suspicious enemy, topics of ‘Love-Jihad’, forced religious conversions, cow slaughter and illegal religious conversion were referred to by the speaker. The BJP MLA from Telangana also openly targeted Asaduddin Owaisi, who is the Chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party and also an MP from Hyderabad, Telangana. It is essential to note here that such inflammatory words were used by the hate offender after having submitted a court ordered undertaking to the Deputy Commission of Police of Zone-I, Mira Bhayander that Singh and the organisers will abide by all the terms and conditions imposed on them by the court and the authorities, and no hate speeches will be delivered at the rally.
A division bench of Justices R.P. Mohite Dere and Shivkumar Dige of the Bombay High Court had imposed the condition of videotaping of the event in its order, by stating that “Needless to state that the Police to video record the entire procession that will be taken out by petitioner as well as the speeches that will be made at the said congregation/rally.”
Details of the Bombay High Court hearing and the conditional permission granted to him can be read here.
However, the videos that have emerged from the rally show how Singh has indulged in stoking communal fires once again. Below are the extracts from his 40 min speech delivered at the said rally, organised to commemorate the birth anniversary of Shivaji Maharaj. We have identified the Hindutva encouraged issues that were touched upon by the BJP MLA during the said rally, in an area which saw communal incidents of large scale only a month ago, in which court ordered video-tapping was also taking place.
This story was originally published in sabrangindia.in. Read the full story here .