'From all accounts, Superintendent of Police Pankaj Choudhary played a stellar role in ensuring that three deliberately crafted incidents of violence in Nainwa and Khanpur in Bundi district, Rajasthan, didn’t turn into a bloody communal riot. Among the measures he took was to arrest 11 activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal.
'Bajrang Dal will observe the 23rd anniversary of the Babri mosque demolition on Sunday as “Shourya Divas” (Valour Day). While the organisation has been observing the day all these years, the context of the recent death of Ashok Singhal, leader of the VHP, its parent organisation, and the Sangh Parivar’s reiteration of its commitment to build a Ram temple as the “true” tribute to him, has made the event, otherwise “routine”, acquire greater symbolic importance...
'For all its rhetoric, the two-day special discussion in Parliament on “Commitment to the Constitution” has done little to dispel the concerns of civil society over growing intolerance. But it should be no surprise, for in his earlier avatar as chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi has a record of disclaiming knowledge of such a warning even from one of his own trusted police officers.
'VHP leader Ashok Singhal, who rose to prominence playing a leading role in the Ram Janambhoomi movement in the late eighties that eventually culminated in the destruction of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in 1992, died Tuesday at a private hospital here, according to Press Trust of India... Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Singhal. “The demise of Ashok Singhalji is a deep personal loss. He was an institution in himself, whose life was centred around serving the nation,” he tweeted. He said he was always fortunate to receive Singhal’s blessings and guidance.
'Ashok Singhal, the VHP patriarch credited with giving Hindutva a political face in the shape of the Ayodhya movement, died today in a Gurgaon hospital. He was 89. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom Singhal was one of the first to endorse as Prime Minister at the 2012 Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, acknowledged the "deep personal loss". "The demise of Ashok Singhalji is a deep personal loss. He was an institution in himself, whose life was centered around serving the nation. I was always fortunate to receive Ashokji's blessings and guidance," Modi tweeted in a condolence message.
'A Muslim barber refused to shut shop “as per custom”, triggering a riot by indignant members of the Hindu community at Nelliyadi village, 70 km from Mangalore, in Karnataka on Tuesday. Though the violence was brought under control a few hours after it erupted around 4 pm, dozens of people were injured and property worth lakhs destroyed in the melee. Bajrang Dal leader Ravi Ballya told HT that the trouble started when the barber, Salman, refused to “respect local sentiments” and keep his shop shut on Tuesdays. “It is well-known that Hindus don’t cut their hair on Tuesdays.
'Activists from a right wing group created a ruckus at Kerala House near Jantar Mantar on Monday, alleging that the canteen there was serving cow meat (in the name of beef on the menu). K.G. Joseph, a protocol officer at the State’s guest house, however, said that the word beef in the menu referred to buffalo meat, consuming which was legal in the Capital. Three members of Hindu Sena, who barged into the house complex after being instigated by a Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist from Kerala, also sought police intervention in the matter.
'Ranchi witnessed city-wide violence following a bandh called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Saturday. The police, however, ensured the situation did not spiral out of control. The bandh call was given following communal violence in the Lower Hinoo locality Friday night. An unidentified youth and the cameraperson of a news channel were injured in Saturday’s violence. Police spokesperson and ADG (Operations) S N Pradhan said 65 people had been detained, but no arrests had been made...
'A day after a Muslim youth was beaten to death in Himachal Pradesh for allegedly smuggling cattle for slaughter, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its sister organization the Bajrang Dal are mulling a massive 'anti-cow slaughter' drive in the communally sensitive western UP districts. VHP's district president for Shamli, one of the flash points of the Muzaffarnagar riots, Subhash Malik, told TOI, "There are around 2,000 illegal slaughterhouses in Kandhla and Kairana blocks of Shamli alone. A large number of people settled here came after the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013.
A Cobrapost and Gulail investigation reveals how the RSS–VHP–BJP combine and their splinter groups use violence, intimidation, emotional blackmail, duplicity and drugs to split up Hindu–Muslim married couples. These organisations claim Muslim men entice and marry Hindu girls in the name of “love jihad”. The groups target not only Hindu girls and women who marry outside their religion, as it is commonly believed, but also their Muslim or Christian partners. The investigation reveals that there is a systematic effort towards using love jihad to polarise communities along communal lines.
