Published Apr 01, 2024 | 5:57 PM ⚊ Updated Apr 01, 2024 | 6:28 PM
BJP MLA T Raja Singh.
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), on Monday, 1 April, wrote to the Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP), seeking urgent action against “repeat offender” T Raja Singh for an alleged hate speech he delivered in Thane.
Raja Singh is a BJP MLA representing the Goshamahal constituency in Telangana.
The civil liberties organisation said the addresses of Raja Singh and others smacked of “communal propaganda and inciteful hate.”
They were made at an event organised by the Hindu Jan Aakrosh Morcha in Mira Road, a Mumbai suburb in Thane district, on 25 February.
The PUCL said the Mira Road police filed the case against the BJP leader for his alleged hate speech only on 23 March.
It said no action has been taken since then, despite several hate speech cases against him.
PUCL pointed out in its letter that Raja Singh and the rally organisers indulged in inflammatory hate speech, flagrantly violating the Bombay High Court order dated 23 February 2024 and his undertaking as well.
The speech of the Goshamahal MLA targeted the Muslim community “to not only demonise Muslims in the minds of the people but also to incite violence against Muslims”.
The complaint letter said, “In his inflammatory speech, T Raja Singh has indulged in hate speech and communal propaganda against the Muslim community. He has blatantly distorted history to incite dangerous feelings of hate and enmity against Muslims and encourage and provoke violence against the community.”
Raja Singh, in his viral public speech, also focussed on “several incendiary and manufactured topics like ‘love jihad’, alleged encroachment of land by Muslims, forced conversions, cow slaughter, etc.”, the letter said.
PUCL said it was alarming that an MLA was speaking openly against the Indian Constitution and its secular values to not only call for a homogenous Hindu nation but also call upon the people to pledge to learn how to use weapons and to create a Hindu nation.
It also alleged that he assured the people present at the meeting that no harm would come to them if they engaged in violence against the minority community.
Referring to the lack of action against him, the letter said: “Even though the police were present at the rally in large numbers and were recording his 40-minute speech, it is appalling that no steps were taken to immediately stop the communal hate speech and arrest the speaker and organisers, not only for violating the high court order dated 23 February 2024 and the Supreme Court orders in the hate speech matter but also breach of the IPC provisions and the undertaking submitted to the police.”
The PUCL said the police inaction on the case against Raja Singh was “discriminatory and biased”.
It called for preventing hate speeches in the future. “Communal hate speech is prevented at all costs in Maharashtra, and strict action is initiated to ensure that Sakal Hindu Samaj and its speakers are not permitted to commit even a single more offence of hate speech. Police action is initiated to investigate all the incidents of communal hate speech made at all the earlier rallies and public events organised by Sakal Hindu Samaj in Maharashtra.”
It also sought action against police officers guilty of dereliction of their duty “by failing to prevent communal hate speech at the rally on 25 February 2024, stopping the rally and taking action against the perpetrators, delaying the filing of FIR and taking further steps towards investigating and prosecuting the crime, including the arrest of the accused”.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)
