The nation is going through a tumultuous period with Islamists getting emboldened and issuing threats to anyone who does not conform to their worldview. After the barrage of death and rape threats to Nupur Sharma for over a month now, the Islamists have started beheading and threatening those who support Nupur Sharma. The beheading of Kanhaiya Lal shocked the nation as the two Islamists released videos of not only their post-murder gloating but also a video of the beheading itself.
Soon after Kanhaiya Lal was beheaded, it was discovered that another Hindu man, Umesh Kolhe was also beheaded for supporting Nupur Sharma. Several people since then have received beheading threats for social media posts in support of Nupur Sharma and Kanhaiya Lal. In fact, it was also discovered that much before the murder of Lal, a family had fled Nagpur after getting constant death threats for their support to Nupur Sharma.
While all of this was unfolding, two Supreme Court judges extended their jurisdiction and passed problematic statements against Nupur Sharma. They blamed her “loose tongue” for the murder of Kanhaiya Lal and said she should apologise to the nation. Essentially, the Supreme Court blamed the murderous actions of the Islamists on the innocuous words of Nupur Sharma in a TV debate.
VHP and Bajrang Dal, which have been the frontline defence for Hindus, took cognisance of the violence by Islamists and said that if any Hindus received such death threats, they should not be scared and contact the police immediately. They further said that Hindus should also contact their local Bajrang Dal units for assistance.
“We urge the Hindus that they need not feel threatened by the anti-national and evil forces that are issuing life threats to them. If they still face any difficulty, they should contact the local Bajrang Dal volunteers,” VHP added that it will soon release helpline numbers for all states.
This statement was made while VHP decried the statements by the Supreme Court judges and said that in their observations (which did not make it to the written order), the Judges had ignored the threat of radical Islam. VHP’s working president sarcastically remarked that the Supreme Court had essentially made us all aware that 1400 years of Islamic onslaught was the fault of Nupur Sharma, according to the Times of India report.
Essentially, there is absolutely nothing wrong with what VHP said. Like any responsible social organisation, VHP asked those getting death threats to contact their local police and ensure that their file complaints. This is the right of any citizen – to approach the police when barbarians threaten them with beheading.
Further, they said that if they still face any difficulty, they should contact local Bajrang Dal units. What could those difficulties be? One would imagine they are talking about instances where the police refuse to take cognisance of their plight, like in the case of Kanhaiya Lal. One has to remember that when Kanhaiya Lal was getting death threats, the Rajasthan police refused to file a case and instead, made him get into a “settlement” with the Islamists. Only a few days later, he was beheaded.
In such a situation, when the state administration fails to protect a Hindu being threatened, one has to call leaders of the community to ensure that pressure is built. The other scenario could possibly be when there is a mob outside someone’s house and the police administration does paltry little. These are realities that one cannot escape given that there are plenty of instances where such things are known to happen.
Times of India, however, was not happy. In their Print version, they prefaced this news with a sentence that indicates that they want Hindus to simply give up without a fight and get killed by Islamists simply to maintain “peace”.
On the first page of their Delhi print edition for 7th July 2022, Times of India says that the decision by VHP, to ask Bajrang Dal to protect those who were getting death threats for supporting Nupur Sharma, could “escalate tensions”.
Essentially, according to the Times of India, any Hindu organisation supporting those who are getting death threats by Islamists could “escalate tension”. It is not a stretch of logic to assume that the Times of India wants Hindus to be helpless in front of Jihadis so that the fragile peace between communities can be maintained.
If they think that VHP and Bajrang Dal protecting those who are getting death threats could escalate tensions, they are in essence saying that those Hindus should not get any protection and left to the mercy of those threatening them, so that “tensions” don’t escalate.
What are these “tensions” that the Times of India seems to be talking about? The fact that Islamists would become violent if Hindu organisations start protecting those getting threats? Or the fact that Islamists may indulge in more rampant and random violence on the streets if they are denied the opportunity and access to behead whoever they want?
In the actual article about this published on page 16 of Times of India, there is no mention of the “escalation of tension” that Times of India seems to be worried about on page 1.
In the digital copy of the report as well, there is no mention of the “escalating tension” that Times of India believes in, however, on the very first page of their print edition, they mention that one innocuous line that reveals what they think should be a Hindus’ conduct while dealing with death threats by those who are known to act on their murderous instincts.
