Raebareli: A right-wing event in Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli came under fire after Hindutva leaders Khushboo Pandey and Riddhima Sharma allegedly targeted Muslims and Christians in a hate speech on Wednesday, January 21.
Addressing the Virat Hindu Conference, Sharma, a social media influencer and content creator who focuses on Hindutva, Sanatan Dharma and political commentary, spoke on the lynching of Bangladeshi Hindu Dipu Chandra Das, saying, “If they kill two of yours, you kill 100 people in retaliation for peace.”
On the conspiracy theory of “love jihad,” she said, “Woh aapke ek Hindu ladki ko bhagate hai, toh aap unke 100 ladki ko bhagao (If they are making one Hindu girl run away, then you should make 100 of their girls run away).”
She insinuated that since the Muslim community “already has a large population,” there should be no problem in decreasing the number.
Reference to ‘gobi farming’
On the other hand, Pandey, known for making violent hate speeches against minority communities over the years, reiterated the “gobi farming” idea, which is a subject of intense political controversy as it glorifies the mass killing of Muslims in the 1989 Bhagalpur violence.
At least 116 Muslim men were killed in the Logain village of Bihar and their bodies were then buried in fields with cauliflower saplings planted over them to allegedly hide the evidence.
Another Hindutva worker, Thakur Ram Singh, openly accused Christians of illegal forced conversions, describing them as a community taking over groups of Hindus across India to convert them.
At the same event, an unidentified man was heard saying, “Be vigilant in your colonies, don’t let any Hindu woman or girl be taken away by ‘jihadis.'”
Several speakers at the event repeatedly stressed the need to protect Hindu women from what they termed “love jihad,” warning of severe consequences if any Muslim man was found involved in such acts.
Former journalist Prashant Kanojia filed an official complaint with the Raebareli Superintendent of Police (SP) against Sharma for “openly calling for the massacre of Muslims.”
“Hate speech and calls for genocide cannot be normalised in a constitutional democracy,” he added.
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