On 16th October 2019, Kamlesh Tiwari was brutally murdered by radical Islamists because, in 2015, Tiwari had allegedly ‘insulted’ Prophet Muhammad. Tiwari was with the Hindu Mahasabha before floating his Hindu Samaj Party. In 2015, he had stoked a controversy with a statement on Prophet Mohammad leading to his arrest. The Uttar Pradesh Police had slapped the National Security Act (NSA) on him.
After his murder, there have been several attempts by the ‘secular’ brigade to not only further malign the Hindu leader but also to downplay the violent death that was handed to Tiwari by radical Islamists. There have been several insinuations on social media from the usual quarters and they have been vociferously countered.
For example, from the CCTV footage, it is evident that the assailants who murdered Kamlesh Tiwari did so wearing saffron kurtas. This was used by the secular brigade to insinuate that Hindus had killed Tiwari and Islamists had nothing to do with it. They were later proven wrong, of course, when the perpetrators arrested turned out to be Muslims and they admitted that they had murdered Kamlesh Tiwari because of his 2015 remarks against Prophet Muhammad. The secular gang was reminded that even Ajmal Kasab, the perpetrator of the heinous 26/11 terrorist attack wore a Kalawa around his wrist. This is a classic technique adopted by Islamists. They do this so if they are neutralised during their attack, their real identity is not revealed and people assume that the attack was carried out by a Hindu and not a Muslim.
Another onslaught on Kamlesh Tiwari even after he was brutally murdered by Islamists came from the Leftist rag, The Wire.
While the outrage from The Wire was entirely missing, they covered the news of Kamlesh Tiwari being murdered, but, with a twist.
In the first paragraph itself, The Wire calls Kamlesh Tiwari as someone who was ‘convicted’ for making ‘allegedly derogatory remarks’ against Prophet Muhammad.
There are multiple things which are wrong with this.
Firstly, Kamlesh Tiwari was never ‘convicted’ in the blasphemy case against him. In 2016, The Allahabad High Court had quashed the NSA charges that had been slapped against him and thereafter, Kamlesh Tiwari was out on bail. Tiwari was arrested in December 2015 as charges under sections 153-A and 295-A were slapped against him. He was granted bail in these charges by a Lucknow court in the second week of January 2016, but had had to remain in jail as UP government had additionally slapped the NSA against him. The NSA was revoked by Allahabad High Court in October 2016, and subsequently, he was released from jail.
The case against Kamlesh Tiwari never proceeded after that. No chargesheet was filed against him, hence there was no trial had started the case. Therefore, The Wire’s assertion that Tiwari had been convicted is patently false.
Second, almost in a Freudian slip, The Wire writes that Kamlesh Tiwari was ‘convicted’ for his ‘alleged derogatory remarks’. If Kamlesh Tiwari had been convicted, the fact that his remarks were ‘derogatory’ would not have remain ‘alleged’ anymore. The fact that The Wire framed the sentence in this manner proves that either they are not very good with legal terminology, or they are simply malicious, the latter explanation being far more believable.
There is a reason why The Wire chooses to lie about this. It is almost as they were trying to lessen the sympathy that the brutal murder of Tiwari would invoke by lying that he had been ‘convicted’.
Along with the Wire, NDTV was not to be left far behind. While Islamists celebrated the brutal murder of Kamlesh Tiwari, NDTV tried to downplay his murder by calling Kamlesh Tiwari a ‘fringe leader’.
One wishes that the Left would understand that while a ‘fringe’ Hindu leader might make uncomfortable comments, ‘fringe’ from the community that must not be named brutally murder the ‘fringe’ Hindu leaders for such comments.
