On Monday, controversial journalist and MeToo accused, Vinod Dua in his daily show provoked Indians to protest and riot in the same manner as witnessed in the United States, following the extra-judicial killing of George Floyd by a white police officer.
He began his rant by making a sweeping statement, “Humara yaha dharam ko lekar hai nafrat aur udhaar nasal ko leakr nafrat hai (We have religious hatred in India whereas in US, there exists hatred between races).” 9 minutes into the video, he narrated how mobs hit the streets, amidst the lockdown, to ‘protest’ against the homicide of a black man.
“40 cities are under curfew in America. Lakhs of people have hit the streets. Some of them even turned violent”, Vinod Dua observed. He stated that the large presence of protestors on the streets, in the US, exemplified the empathy and humanity in them. “But, Indians are unaware of their rights,” he sighed.
Taking inspiration from US riots, he lamented how the Indian civil society did not react the same when migrant workers had to walk a thousand kilometres to their native villages. In a bid to whitewash violent mobs that had vandalised and looted shops under the pretext of protests, Vinod Dua called them ‘crusaders of human rights.’ “Even Trump had to shift to the basement,” he emphasised.
Taking cue from how violent protests could even make the elected US President hostage in his Presidential estate, Dua said, “We will want to see such people here too. We have 130 crore people after all. America does not even have that much population.” In his concluding remarks, he reiterated how the people in India had failed to display their anger against the mistreatment of minorities.
Riots in the United States
After Floyd’s death, violent protests have broken out in several US cities. Frenzied mobs had set the 3rd precinct offices of the police in Minneapolis on fire. On Friday night, US President Donald Trump was reportedly escorted to a special bunker after the violent protests had spread to outside of the White House in Washington, DC. Protestors had gathered outside the Presidential Estate on Friday night and clashes took place between the rioters and the President’s Secret Service. On Saturday, rioters had also desecrated the 142-year old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan in New York, fin the aftermath of the George Floyd Case. Shops have been looted, vehicles have been burned and businesses have been attacked in the violent frenzy rapidly gripping the entire nation.
Dua not first to seek US like violence in India
Vinod Dua is not the first who is saying that US like violence should erupt in India. Earlier, Ashok Swain, professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, said that the kind of protests that were witnessed in the United States of America and Canada regarding ‘Black Lives Matter’ needed to be replicated in India to “oppose extra-judicial killings of Muslims in the country”. While he was careful to not explicitly incite violence, the implication of the tweet is clear. While the US riots are being justified openly and even incited by leftists on social media, some want such violent protests to be replicated in India.
Several other Indian ‘intellectuals’ also voiced similar desires. They wanted Muslims in India to take to the streets for so-called ‘Muslim Lives Matter’ protests.
