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New Delhi, June 14, 2023 (PPI-OT): After the appearance of posters asking Muslim traders to leave Purola town in the Indian state of Uttarakhand cross marks on shops belonging to members of the Muslim community in the nearby Barkot town have raised concerns about the volatile and grave situation in the state.
Last week, posters were put up on Muslim shops in Purola town. At the same time, cross marks appeared on the shops in Barkot, about 30 km from Purola. These marks are seen as targeting local Muslims in the name of “Love Jihad” (a term coined by the Hindutva organizations for the Hindu women who convert to Islam and marry Muslim men). Local traders led by some Hindutva outfits are running hate campaigns against the Muslims on one pretext or another including a case of ‘Love Jihad’. They also held violent protests and vandalised Muslims’ shops recently.
Although the police have filed a case with regard to incidents which have created a fear psychosis among Muslims, the appearance of cross marks on the shops has drawn a lot of attention on social media. It is being compared to what happened with the Jews in Hungary. Reacting to the development, Sandeep Manudhane, an educationist and entrepreneur, tweeted: “This is how the pogrom against Jews by German Nazis began, in the 1930s. Dear Indians, stop this nonsense from repeating. Courts must take cognisance and put a firm end to this dangerous idea”.
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor described the developments as “horrifying”. “This cannot be what we have reduced ourselves to. Gandhiji would be ashamed of the India we have created,” tweeted Tharoor. Veteran journalist Rana Ayyub also tweeted the news report describing it as a development of ‘New India’. “Remember the last time homes of the victims were ‘marked’ by aggressors, genocidal speeches given in public with cops blaming the victims, the media playing the most provocative headlines and enabling the attackers. Remember what part of the world witnessed this and how do we remember it till this day?” she said.
Meanwhile, a diehard Hindutva protagonist continues to make hate speeches against Muslims. Swami Prabodhanand Giri Mahamandaleshwar, a Hindutva priest based in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar city, extended his support to the Purola Mahapanchayat, planned for 15 June. He said the meeting would primarily discuss ways to save this “dev bhoomi” from Jihadis, in an apparent reference to the Muslims.
He said he (a Hindu man) was naive and became a target of the Muslim man. There is a process, a format involved: First, you be friends with a Hindu and then lure his sister. “Dev Bhoomi has been surrounded by Jihadis…Uttarakhand mai a ginat (countless) women have been targeted,” he claimed. In his earlier video, he lauded the people of Purola for forcing the Muslims to leave the town. He asked people to teach a lesson to the Muslims across the Uttarakhand state.
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