In yet another incident of Islamophobia, Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami recently raised ‘land jihad’ conspiracy during an election rally in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, to target Muslims.
Dhami was speaking at an election rally on April 29. However, the videos of his anti-Muslim ‘hate speech’ surfaced on the internet a day later.
Notably, “land jihad” is a conspiracy theory propagated by right-wing Hindutva outfits. It refers to the idea of illegal land occupation by the Muslim community in India in order to take over the country.
Fear-mongering speech
In a video that went viral on social media platforms, Dhami is seen addressing a larger gathering wearing saffron scarfs in Bareilly. At the event, Dhami is purportedly heard claiming that there is a concerted effort by certain groups to illegally occupy land in Uttarakhand.
Likening the opposition Congress with the Muslim League (of Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah), Dhami said that the party will snatch reservations from SC, and OBCs and give it to other communities (Muslims).
In an unambiguous speech, Dhami further said, “We implemented the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Uttrakhand and are working to carry it throughout the nation. And on the other side Congress is planning to come to power and implement “Muslim personal law”.
“They (Congress) have been appeasing their vote bank since the beginning, and now they will do the same and snatch rights and reservations from OBC and SC communities,” he alleged.
Amid the applause from the audience, he went on to say, “We implementation of anti-conversion law in Uttrakhand Devibhoomi (God’s land), we exposed land Jihad and freed 5,000 lands from them.”
Hate speech during LS polls
The Lok Sabha elections in India have been marred by a disturbing rise in anti-Muslim hate speech.
The BJP’s campaign strategy has increasingly relied on anti-Muslim rhetoric, with leaders making derogatory remarks and spreading misinformation about the minority community.
Prime Minister Modi, in particular, has been accused of engaging in hate speech by referring to Muslims as “infiltrators” and making controversial statements that incite religious tensions.
