How do we promote peace in India, today?

Ram Puniyani
July 18, 2018

We are passing through times when Hate against weaker sections of society and religious minorities is increasing by leaps and bounds. The increase in the mob lynching all over the country on the pretext of child lifting is coming on the back of mob lynching on the pretext cow-beef, public flogging-humiliation of dalits on the issue of beef and other issues related their caste humiliation. Mobs seem to be emboldened by the fact that there has been an approval of these acts from the top. Ministers like Mahesh Sharma came to the funeral of Dadri accused, now Mr. Jayant Sinha welcomed the accused of Alimuddin lynching accused when they got bail. The matters are frighteningly increasing as now the horrid incidents of rape are being given a communal twist, fake news is being employed with impunity on one side and rape accused are getting social support on the other. It’s a matter of shame that in case of Kathua the then Ministers from BJP Chaudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, attended the event organized by Hindu Ekta Manch, which was protesting against the arrests in the case.

Now in case of Mandsaur rape, the incident is being given false twist to demonize a community. The accused belonged to Muslim community. Muslim groups took out a procession demanding severe punishment to the accused. Jyotiradiya Scindiya of Congress joined a candle light procession to demand death penalty to the accused. Social media was used to spread the hateful message as if he was demanding the release of the accused. The pictures of procession were photo shopped to present Muslims in bad light. A message was circulated, which said that members of the Muslim community rallied in Mandsaur demanding that the perpetrator of the crime be released because the Quran sanctions rape of non-Muslim women.

The text of the placards in the Mandsaur procession was “We won’t tolerate attacks on daughters, stop this brutality”. A tweet was circulated “NCRB report: India is most dangerous for women reason: In India, 95% of the rape cases have a Muslim perpetrator. Of the total 84734 rape cases, 81000 rapes had a Muslim rapist and 96% of the victims are non-Muslims and with an increase in theirpopulation, number of rapes will also increase.”

Nothing can be farther from truth. NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) does not record the religion in cases of rape. This tweet and the one about Jyotiraditya Scindia was exposed by AltNews, the portal going to the roots of such fake news and is doing a great service to society by giving the truth and exposing the news which is deliberately trying to demonize the religious minority. One recalls that in case of Muzzafarnagar; the violence was incited by circulating a photo of two young men being beaten by a Muslim looking crowd. It was presented that Hindu youth are being beaten. As such that picture was from Pakistan, the crowd beating two thieves.

Recently in Kairana the Mahagathbandhan candidate Tabassum Hasan won the election against the BJP candidate. After winning she stated “This is the victory of truth and ‘Mahagatbandhan’ (coalition) and defeat of the BJP in the state and Centre. Everyone has come out and supported us. I thank them.” On social media and on TV debates what was presented was that she said “This is the victory of Allah and defeat of Ram”. This quote was posted on a number of pro-BJP pages on Facebook among which Yogi Adityanath-True Indian posted it on 1 June, and was shared massively.

 One recalls that in recent times BJP has deliberately muddied the waters of social media by employing thousands of trolls, as Swati Chaturvedi’s “I am a Troll”, tells us. As such the hate propaganda began with demonization of Muslim kings for breaking Hindu temples in medieval period, for spreading Islam, for having large families, indulging in polygamy, being terrorists etc. Now it has taken a dangerous turn with people trained in communal ideology and in the use of social media twisting the facts blatantly. There are reports that in the forthcoming elections BJP is planning to train lakhs of volunteers in the use of social media for electoral gains. The rising hatred is becoming like a monster, propelling itself beyond control.

Can we just accuse the social media for intensifying this hate? Some control and restraint is needed, some fact check is necessary for this highly impactful media. What is also needed is that mechanisms like AltNews are made more popular to counter these falsehoods. It is heartening to note that Twitter has decided to suspend seven Crore fake accounts. We also need to ensure that the misconceptions and Hate which is ruling our society, streets need to be countered by message of love. What we need is that truth is propagated and message of peace is made more effective. We have activists like Faisal Khan, who through his Khudai Khidmatagar takes out peace marches. Harsh Mander’s Paigam-E-Mohabbat (Message of peace) has been doing yeomen service by meeting the families of victims of lynching and creating an atmosphere of amity. Mahant from Ayodhya Yugal Kishore Sharan Shastri, through his less advertised peace marches is trying to reach sections of society with a message of tolerance and peace. Such efforts need to be upheld and broadened. These are just few examples of the initiatives in this direction, there are many more which need to be projected to promote and preserve amity in India.

Countering Hate and promoting amity became the central message of father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, who struggled to promote peace, in the highest traditions of his Hinduism. As the fake news is assuming frightening proportions and is doing serious harm to the concept of fraternity inherent in Indian nationalism, we need to retune ourselves to the core value of amity, which was the foundation of freedom movement and is very much the part of our Constitution.

Comments

Thinkers
 - 
Wednesday, 18 Jul 2018

Listen carefully to Zakir naik speeches and then go and check in VEDAS if what he says is written in your scriptures... Then U can conclude who is IGNORANT of his religion and WHO is behind all the hatred SPREAD. If some hindus do that than that will change many IGNORANT of their own RELIGION. and this will help to AVOID falling trap to Cheddi wats app RUMOURS... 

Kumar
 - 
Wednesday, 18 Jul 2018

I dont know why these saffrons hate Muslims.

Danish
 - 
Wednesday, 18 Jul 2018

Ban Zakir Naik speeches in India. Ban RSS too

Suresh
 - 
Wednesday, 18 Jul 2018

The only solution is ban RSS

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News Network
July 17,2020

Mangaluru, Jul 17: An expert team from Bengaluru has arrived here on Friday to study the factors that have led to the sudden spurt in death due to Covid-19 in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka in the recent past.

The team has arrived following a request made by the district administration. The team comprising three experts has already held talks with specialist Doctors, according to official sources.

It will examine the reports on the treatment provided to the patients who have succumbed to the infection and will submit a report citing reasons for the increase in deaths, the sources added.

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News Network
January 24,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 24: After the visit of fact finding committee members to the spot, the Christian community here decided to submit a report to the state government urging to install a 114-ft. statue of Jesus Christ at Kapala Betta in Kanakapura taluk of Ramanagaram district, Congress MLC Ivan D’souza said here on Thursday.

While talking to media, Mr D’souza said the committee would submit the report to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Revenue Minster R. Ashok and urge the government to construct the statue at the earliest.

The RSS and other BJP outfits have strongly opposed the installation, following which the government ordered suspension of the work. A few days ago, Kalladka Prabhakar, RSS ideologue, took out a rally in Kanakapura opposing the installation.

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 16,2020

Udupi, Jul 16: With two deaths in a single day, and receiving coronavirus positive report of a person who died two days ago, Udupi district’s covid-19 death toll today mounted to eight. 

A-49-year-old resident of Udupi, was admitted to Ajjarkad government hospital for other ailments. He was suffering from multiple health issues like diabetes and respiratory problems.

Last night he was tested positive for coronavirus and hence he was shifted to Dr TMA Pai COVID hospital in Udupi where he breathed his last today. 

A 54-year-old man from Maravanthe in Byndoor taluk, who was suffering from asthma, today died while being taken from one hospital to the other.

He was admitted to a private hospital in Kundapur on the evening of Wednesday. Today he was being shifted to Manipal hospital. However he breathed his last half way through.  

His body was taken back to Kundapur and throat swab of the deceased was sent for testing. As the sample of the deceased person was taken using rapid test kit, his report was available within half an hour and it showed positive for covid-19. 

Meanwhile, throat swabs of a man from Ankola in Uttar Kannada district, who passed away in Manipal Hospital on July 14, were tested positive today. His funeral was held at the Beedinagudde crematorium as per the COVID norms.

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