Statement on Jantar Mantar rally of Aug. 8, 2021

Justice For All expresses extreme concern regarding the recent “Bharat Jodo Andolan”,a rally held in New Delhi, India on August 8, 2021. This occurred just a few miles from the Indian Parliament, where an alarming gathering of right wing radical people took place, with hate speech filled with disturbing and inflammatory calls for the massacre of Muslims.

Organized by BJP leaders the Hindutva rally was called under the pretext to end British era civil codes, but degenerated into a call to mass murder of Indian Muslims and targeting of their businesses. Ashwini Upadhyay, a former spokesperson of the BJP and a Supreme Court lawyer was one of the organizers. Delhi Police were also present at the rally but chose to remain passive and turned a blind eye to racist vitriol that the attendees spewed. A journalist, Anmol Pritam, was forced to chant the Hindu religious call, ”Jai Shree Ram ” and when he refused he was assaulted by a rally attendee. The police did nothing to stop this assault as it took place, further showing that police presence is not a deterrent.

Pamphlets which were handed out at the rally clearly call for genocide. Fear and intimidation tactics have been long used in India but the brazenness in calling for a genocide is increasing. This needs to be condemned at the highest level. The pamphlets included statements that said “Islam needs to be destroyed from the face of the earth” , “The destruction of Islam will start from India”, “If you keep looking towards court and constitution, then how will you carry on genocide of Muslims?”, “We have to wipe them (Muslims) out from the face of this earth, not just from India.” and “Don’t protest, don’t make noise. Carry out a genocide.”

Zahir Adil, of Justice For All’s Save India team said, “What happened yesterday at Jantar Mantar in Delhi tarnishes my memory of that ancient observatory. Chants at the ground of “when Muslims are killed, Ram’s name will be taken” are a direct and open call to commit mass murder of a section of the Indian population. As Muslims, we had to work hard against the hijacking of our faith by radicals. The Hindu community should act now to  stop their religion from being hijacked by these Nazi insipred radicals.”

Under the BJP, India is witnessing an increasing amount of open violence against Muslims. Religious and communal extremism have been taken from the street into direct policy levels. This type of retrotic and antics have always been present in the BJP’s policies from its origins but we now see it openly on the streets. It is a blatant disregard of human rights, religious freedoms and liberty.

Justice for All, is asking you to take action and raise your voice against this. We must remain united in our cause of justice. Please tweet at Secretary Antony Blinken using the tweets our team has come up with, or you are free to choose your own. Raising awareness of what is happening is key to getting attention to this cause so that we may take further action and steps on this. The time to ACT upon India is NOW and this first and foremost starts with YOU.

Sample TWEETs & Take Action:  https://www.justiceforall.org/save-india/tweet-at-sec-blinken-pogram-prep-starts-in-india/