(Photo: Meghnad Bose/The Quint)
By MEGHNAD BOSE & FATIMA KHAN
Premi accused Reyaz of selling cows for beef, tied his hands behind his back, paraded him through the market, and then in full public view, thrashed him with a belt. The crowd that had gathered had their mobile phones rolling.
The video of the violence went viral, and Premi was arrested by the UP Police.
In July that year, the Shamli district administration invoked the National Security Act (NSA) against him, which was approved by the Samajwadi Party government in the state. But on 31 December 2015, in an order conveyed by the Union Home Ministry, the BJP-led central government revoked the NSA charge against Vivek Premi.
Upon his release, Premi realised that the viral video that had sent him to jail had also propelled him to immense fame within right-wing Hindutva circles.
Premi, who had been a longtime member of the Bajrang Dal even before his imprisonment, came out and doubled down on his vigilante violence. Him and his gang of Bajrang Dal members thrashed Muslim men who dared to go out with Hindu women, with complete and self-admitted impunity. Premi became a poster boy of the Hindutva campaign against the supposed occurrence of ‘love jihad’.
In February 2020, after years of such vigilantism and violence, Premi transitioned out of the Bajrang Dal and became a functionary of the BJP. He was given the responsibility of being a zila mantri (district-level party official) in Shamli.
This election season, Premi, now a 28-year-old BJP local leader, has been a busy man, heavily involved in BJP’s campaign efforts.
And even as Yogi Adityanath makes his bid to remain in power in India’s most electorally significant state, it is important to explore and analyse the role that vigilantes like Premi and his ilk have played in taking the BJP’s message to the people of UP – not just right before the elections, but over the past five years of Adityanath’s chief ministership.
Building The ‘Love Jihad’ Narrative and Paving The Ground for Yogi’s Anti-Conversion Law
In November 2020, the Yogi Adityanath government introduced the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, colloquially referred to as ‘the love jihad law’.
But much before the law came about, there was a massive, sustained effort by Hindutva vigilante groups across UP to build a narrative on ‘love jihad’ on the ground, among the people. From ‘awareness campaigns on love jihad’ to straight-up vigilante violence on the streets, the ground work for the BJP’s campaign on the issue of ‘love jihad’ was done by Hindutva organisations such as the Hindu Yuva Vahini, Hindu Jagran Manch, Veerangana Vahini, Bajrang Dal and so on.
In 2018, for example, two years before the law would come to be, Vivek Premi had got word from a member of a hotel staff that a Hindu woman and a Muslim man were together in a room in that hotel. And that was all he needed to hear. That the two of them were consenting adults didn’t matter to him.
“I came along with 10 to 12 members of my team to the hotel. And went and knocked on the door of the room the couple was in,” recounts Premi.
Did no one ask or stop him at the reception of the hotel?
“Who would ask Vivek Premi to stop? I knocked and demanded, “Open up.” The manager of the hotel came running and asked me what had happened. I told him, “There’s love jihad going on inside this room. The man is a Muslim, the woman a Hindu.”
“Even the hotel staff then asked the couple to come out and talk to us once. But the couple refused to open the door. And so, we broke it open and barged in.”
Premi claims that the Muslim man was pretending to be a Hindu.
In front of the hotel staff, inside that room, Premi and his fellow Bajrang Dal members then proceeded to thrash the man. “We interrogated him and we beat him up. And then we called the police.”
The news of such incidents would spread across town, and the narrative that “love jihad is happening here and these people are trying to stop it” would reach the ears of the intended target audiences – Hindus whom Premi and those like him were trying to appeal to, and Muslims whom they were trying to intimidate.
But the work on ‘love jihad’ by these organisations wasn’t just limited to such acts of vigilante violence. They would also include regular sessions with people of all ages, including young children, where members of these groups would “educate” them about the “dangers of love jihad”.
At one such session of the Hindu Jagran Manch and its women-only sister organisation the Veerangana Vahini in Bareilly, we saw multiple speakers hold forth on the subject for around an hour, speaking to an audience that included teachers and several young adults.
The aim of such sessions was to spread the message of ‘love jihad’ far and wide, and teachers were especially singled out as agents who would be best suited to do that.
The Hindutva leaders present explained to us why ‘recruiting’ teachers was considered so crucial to their mission. It was felt that teachers could easily amplify the messaging of Hindutva organisations on issues such as ‘love jihad’ and convince the young impressionable minds of their students in schools and colleges thanks to their authority figure status.
Addressing his audience at the ‘awareness session’, Harsh Bhardwaj of the Hindu Jagran Manch said, “We want to end love jihad from its roots. How can we do that? In every school and coaching centre, we need to have our teams, or at the very least, one person who keeps a track of everyone – of who is pursuing whom.”
At the end of the session, Soni Gupta of the Veerangana Vahini boasted, “Over the past two years, I have placed one woman each from our organisation in every coaching centre.”
These frequent and in-person ‘awareness’ and outreach sessions by the Hindutva organisations, which were designed for men and women who were not yet within their fold, helped amplify the messaging and create a conducive and receptive environment for the political overtures of the BJP on the theme of ‘love jihad’.
The statements by BJP leaders decrying the supposed phenomenon, and the actions of the Yogi government against it, such as through the anti-conversion law, thus came seemingly on a pitch that was already prepared for them.
And the benefits extended both ways. Anshuman Patel, a local leader of the Hindu Jagran Manch in west UP, said, “Under previous governments, we would not get as much support. On cases of ‘love jihad’, the police and government would not support us as much but we would continue raising awareness.”
“Before 2014, there were other governments. Now, the BJP is in power. Earlier, organisations like ours were working on such matters (like ‘love jihad’) but in a hidden way. But our hands have been freed now that we have our own folks in power,” admits Harsh Sangal, a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Bareilly. He adds, “Once the BJP government came in, we have been getting support from the administration. Even our MLAs and MPs support us.”
The Modus Operandi of Vigilantism
The ‘love jihad’ vigilantes we met all said that they have a problem with every single instance of a Hindu woman and a Muslim man being together in a relationship. And that they are on a mission to find and separate. But how do they go about tracking down these Hindu-Muslim couples and what do they do once they find them?
Step 1: The Informers Are Everywhere
On being asked about how they find the couples, Vivek Premi boasts, “I have informers everywhere. No one knows who those informers are. They do their job discreetly. It could be someone at a cycle repair shop, it could be someone inside court.
“In court, for example, I have informers who are lawyers’ assistants, and informers who sell chai in the court premises. In hotels, I have waiters and managers who are my sources. Those who work in the marriage bureau are in touch with me as well.
“The moment there is such a couple spotted – a Hindu woman with a Muslim man – their job is to just inform me. Neither do they have to fight, nor do they have to stop them, their responsibility is to call us and tip us off. They will tell us, for example, “This is the hotel they are in. This is the room number.””
We ask him, “So, their jobs will be safe and your work will get done too?”
“Yes. There is no financial incentive given to them. I am working for my religion, and I ask them to work for their religion too. Ideologically, the informers are aligned with us. The only difference is that they work behind the scenes, and we are in front.”
Arguably the most integral part of this network of informers are the lawyers and those working in the courts. When a Muslim man and a Hindu woman (or a recently converted Muslim woman) seek legal help to register their marriage, these informers play the crucial role of finding out when the couple has arranged to visit the court.
And when the couple eventually turn up on their special day, the vigilantes are already waiting for them.
Recall the Moradabad case? A woman named Muskan and her mother-in-law were accosted by Bajrang Dal vigilantes led by local strongman Monu Vishnoi on the same day that they had gone to seek legal help to register her marriage to a Muslim man named Rashid.
The informer may not have been the lawyer himself. It could just as well have been anyone who was around. And that is the silent strength of the vigilantes’ informer network.
So, what next? What happens after the tipoff is received?
It’s time for the assaulters to take over from the informers.
Step 2: Enter the Assaulters
To explain this next step, Premi recounts one of his favourite team activities – “catching a couple”. He narrates an incident which took place in a restaurant in Shamli. An informer from among the restaurant staff had intimated him that a Muslim man and Hindu woman were eating out together.
When Premi reached the restaurant, his informer discreetly pointed him towards the table where the two were seated.
“I asked them what they were doing there. They questioned me back, “Who are you?” Neither of them had recognised me,” Premi says, sounding slightly bemused.
“Then I asked them, “Why have you come here?”
They responded, “Aise hi ghoomne aaye. We came just like that, to hang out.”
“Why? Kya lagta hai tera woh? What is your relation?”
“Dost hai. We’re friends.”
“Dost kya hota hai? Bhai, do cheez hai duniya mein. Ya toh bhai hai, ya boyfriend hai. Dost kya hai? What do you mean by “We’re friends”? There are two relations in the world (between a man and a woman). Either he is her brother, or her boyfriend. What is this “We’re friends”?”
Step 3: Catch. Thrash. Repeat.
Premi continues, “We took him outside and beat him up soundly. We sent the girl home on a rickshaw. Aur usko le jaake maara s***e kutton ki tarah. (And we thrashed the guy like a dog.) We beat him so badly that he will never so much as look at a Hindu woman again. We showed other Muslims too – that if you go out with Hindu women, these are the consequences you will suffer.”
The viral video that had sent Premi to jail had also apparently taught him a lesson. To keep the cameras off when the assault is on.
When we asked him, “Did one of you record a video of beating this Muslim guy?”, he replied, “No. It was because of a video that I’d gone to jail for seven months. So, no more videos. Camera off karo, aur khoob maaro. Switch off the camera, and then thrash them.”
Premi boasts that he has had several such exploits. “We have caught a lot of couples. Every year on Valentine’s Day, we caught couples and made them understand.” But he adds that this ‘work’ isn’t just restricted to 14 February, it happens round the year.
He also reiterates that all of this was when he was with the Bajrang Dal and not with the BJP. Now that he has moved on to work directly for the party, the baton has been handed to other vigilantes in the region to keep the ‘work’ going.
Hand in Glove: The Cop-Vigilante Collusion
Breaking into hotel rooms, assaulting people “to teach them a lesson”, breaking the law at will, how do right-wing vigilantes like Vivek Premi and Monu Vishnoi not fear the repercussions of their actions?
In the words of Premi, it is because “Now, the police are helping us.”
Stressing on how much has changed since the BJP came to power, Premi adds, “It is after a nationalist government came to power that the masses started becoming aware of ‘love jihad’. The situation now is very different from what it was 7-8 years ago. Today, the Hindu community understands.
“We used to work on these issues before the BJP government came in too. If they wanted to file a case against us and send us to jail, they could do that. Our attitude was – “Apna kaam zindabad. Our work is what matters and it shall triumph.” But once the BJP came to power, it has helped us on this front as well. When we do our job now, there is no longer a fear that the police will act against us.”
But is this mere hyperbole by Premi or are the cops actually complicit in letting men like him run amok?
Seated in a police station in Moradabad, the Station House Officer (SHO) of the thana answers my query, “We, the police, may think that a certain Hindu-Muslim couple are in love with each other. But these organisations, which are involved in social work, get to the bottom of the matter and inform us that it is not love, but ‘love jihad’. Then after making some enquiries, we will send the man to jail. We may do the investigation on paper, but it is these organisations who actually find out what is going on. They help us in doing our job.”
And the SHO was no exception. Cops of varying ranks, whom we spoke to during our travels across Uttar Pradesh, concur that the vigilantes are merely assisting them in the fight against ‘love jihad’. No surprise then that men like Premi don’t exactly fear law enforcement when they go about being self-styled enforcers themselves. But Dheeraj Kaushik, a 30-year-old ‘gau raksha’ vigilante in Mathura, says he wants even more support from the police, “I expected much more support from the administration, particularly the police force. While we often help them, and alert them since we are often the first to reach any spot, we expect more coordination from their end too.”
Dheeraj Kaushik says he was just 16 when he “saved” a cow for the first time, and began his journey towards becoming a gau rakshak. He says he was walking through an empty lane near his home in Mathura’s Govardhan, some time in 2008, when he saw a middle-aged man carrying a cow, and he “intuitively knew it wasn’t his cow.”
“I went and confronted him very sternly. Turns out, I was right. That cow wasn’t his. He had stolen it to hand over to some communities who would then have slaughtered it,” Kaushik told The Quint, at his residence in Govardhan. Today, he heads the Mathura vertical of the Gau Raksha Dal, a vigilante group which works in various states of north India.
After nearly 15 years of doing this night and day, Kaushik has now developed a ‘fool-proof process’ to confronting alleged “cow thieves”.
“Just like the police have trustworthy informants, we do too. So for instance, the Meo community here is often found stealing cows. We have some good people from within that community who alert us every time a heist is being planned. They tell us the exact route that will be taken, and according to that we decide where exactly we should intercept the vehicle carrying the cows,” he says.
But it isn’t just some informants he relies on; Kaushik often gets calls from strangers too. “My number is spread all over Mathura city and even outside of it. So, if some cow lover sees something wrong happening, they call me and give me the details. I immediately leave with my men for the spot,” Kaushik says.
Once at the spot, before accosting the alleged thieves, he says he does his due diligence. The first step of this is to check whether the group carrying the cows are Hindus or Muslims.
“If they are Hindus, they may be taking the cows to a government gau raksha kendra, so we check if they have the proper documents for that,” he says. But what if they are Muslims? “Even then, we try to be patient and give the benefit of the doubt. But if it is clear that they were stealing the cows to slaughter them, we do what we have to do to stop them,” he adds.
In the last few years, reports of gau rakshaks harassing, beating, and lynching Muslim men using the pretext of cow protection, have become commonplace.
In September 2021, CM Yogi Adityanath brought in a new policy as per which he banned sale of all meat and liquor in Mathura. A consequence of this was that gau rakshaks got emboldened further, and with added vigour began harassing not just those who are seen carrying cows but also those who they suspect of carrying raw meat.
Recently, in Mathura itself, a few such gau rakshaks thrashed two Muslim men over the suspicion of them carrying raw meat, and live-streamed the incident for over 16 minutes on Facebook. It was as much a public spectacle of vigilante assault as it was an open threat to members of the minority community.
“We have content about ‘love jihad’ circulating on social media and WhatsApp all the time,” says Vivek Premi.
Premi’s boast is not an empty one. Hundreds of WhatsApp and Facebook groups perform the function of propagating a stream of seemingly endless content on ‘love jihad’. These posts and forwards reach audiences far and wide, with several degrees of separation between the creator of the content and its final recipients.
Take a look at this post on a Facebook group titled ‘India Against #Love_Jihad’. It rails against the marriage and subsequent divorce of UPSC 2015 toppers Tina Dabi and Athar Khan, terming their relationship a case of ‘love jihad’.
A plethora of similar posts flooded social media when Dabi and Khan filed for divorce in November 2020, two years after getting married. The narratives in these posts and forwards were almost identical – that this is what happens when a Hindu woman becomes a victim of ‘love jihad’ and marries a Muslim man.
During our travels across UP, these same statements that we saw on social media were repeated to us multiple times by various people, a testament to the virality and pervasiveness of such messaging.
For example, an SHO in Moradabad brought up the same example, “If true love was indeed possible between a Hindu woman and a Muslim man, then wouldn’t Tina Dabi’s marriage have survived? She and her husband are both well-educated. If their relationship couldn’t survive, how can a lower-class person find “true love” in a Hindu-Muslim relationship?”
As did the Superintendent of Police (SP) of a city in western UP, who said, “Look at Tina Dabi. Look what happened to her. It’s because there is a lot of bigotry among Muslims.”
These overarching claims were all made without any substantiation – neither has there been any news to suggest that Dabi faced mistreatment of any kind, nor did those passing these remarks explain why the story of one couple’s separation merited comments about the nature of a whole community.
But through our conversations with people who made such statements, it was all too apparent that ‘stories’ forwarded on social media and particularly WhatsApp groups were reaching audiences across different sections of society.
Referring to the time he spent with the Bajrang Dal, Premi explains, “We have block-wise WhatsApp groups. Shamli has six blocks, and we have dedicated WhatsApp groups for each of them.” And each Hindutva organisation has its own large network of WhatsApp groups, with groups organised and methodically divided based on the localities and regions they are mandated to target.
Leaders of Hindutva organisations we spoke to admit that these networks serve as additional channels that provide a steady stream of content that reinforces political communication on themes such as ‘love jihad’, which today is a crucial part of Yogi Adityanath’s poll campaign in UP.
How Vigilantes Campaign for the BJP Come Election Season
In poll season, Hindutva vigilantes from various right-wing outfits turn into election campaigners for the BJP. The Hindutva organisations conduct large-scale canvassing initiatives, from door-to-door campaigns to voter outreach programmes and gatherings.
A BJP leader tells us on condition of anonymity, “All the Hindu organisations are involved in election campaigning for the BJP, some directly and some indirectly. And there is a huge impact that such campaigning by these Hindutva organisations has on the BJP’s poll efforts.”
They add, “If somebody from the BJP is asking people to vote for the party, then the people think that “Yes, obviously he’s going to talk in favour of the BJP.” But when these fellows (members of Hindutva organisations) go to people and speak, they engage and listen much more meaningfully. And the Sangh has a huge network. There are so many organisations within the Sangh, and there are so many beyond the Sangh too. The appeal by all of them is the same – to ask people to vote on these issues (of Hindutva).”
Vivek Premi remarks, “When I was in the Bajrang Dal, I would still be involved in campaigning – we would go and tell people to vote for Hindutva and in national interest. That would be enough to explain to people whom we were saying they should vote for.”
Premi continues, “We would also go door-to-door, speak to people, and distribute pamphlets. We explained to voters what the problems plaguing our Hindu society are, and why they should vote for the party that is raising these issues and working on them.”
We ask him, “So, people would basically understand through what you said that you’re asking them to vote for the BJP?”
“Yes.”
But above and beyond their overt campaigning for the BJP in election season, there is also an acknowledgement of the political benefits reaped by the BJP through the ‘regular work’ done by Hindutva organisations and their vigilantes.
The BJP leader who spoke to us on condition of anonymity says, “There is definitely a direct political impact that occurs through the five years between elections, due to the work done by Hindutva organisations. And come election time, this work has a big impact on how voters think.”
This article first appeared on thequint.com