Vulgarity red herring drowns greater evil

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The recent uproar over influencer Ranveer Allahabadia’s crass joke on the now canceled show “India’s Got Talent” and the subsequent FIRs and demand by the Supreme Court (SC) to regulate online content has overshadowed something far more sinister. Hate speech – particularly by the ruling BJP against the country’s Muslim minority – has not only gained acceptance but has become a ladder to political success. According to a recently released report by a Washington-based India Hate Lab (IHL), there was a 74.4 per cent rise in hate speech incidents in 2024 compared to 2023.

The IHL recorded 1,165 hate speeches in 2024 compared to 668 in 2023. Notably, 2024 was the year of the Lok Sabha elections in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP was seeking a third consecutive term. The polls were conducted in six phases, four of which were concentrated in May, the worst month, clocking 269 hate speech incidents. Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath figured as the most prominent offenders.

In fact, UP topped the list with 242 hate speeches followed by Maharashtra at 210. Notably, both states are ruled by the saffron party. However, interestingly, they suffered massive losses in both states in the Lok Sabha, bringing their total tally to 240 seats.

'Modi number 1 offender?' A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report noted 110 of Modi’s 173 poll speeches contained anti-Muslim remarks. They also pointed out that the Election Commission, which has the power to punish hate speech, merely issued notices to party chiefs of both BJP and Congress, allowing the hate fest to continue. The PM kick-started his hate speech campaign in earnest on April 21, 2024 when he labelled Muslims “infiltrators”, fear mongered about the community’s “high birthrate” and misquoted former PM Manmohan Singh’s speech from 2006 to claim Congress would snatch the resources of Hindus to give to Muslims.

IHL noted that in the 43 days after this speech, 300 hate speech incidents, an average of seven a day. Not to be outdone, Adityanath delivered 86 hate speeches of his own in 2024, invoking conspiracy theories like “love jihad” and “vote jihad”. In fact, 581 of these hate speeches contained these conspiracy theories in addition to “land jihad”.

Moreover, 259 of these remarks included calls for violence, 123 comments instigated armed mobilisation and 274 targeted places of worship, mainly mosques. Although Muslims were the subject of hatred in 98.5 per cent of the cases, Christians were also targeted in 115 events. Anti-Christian peaked in December in the lead up to Christmas.

BJP states fare worst Notably, states ruled by BJP accounted for 80 per cent of all hate speeches in 2024. IHL noted the saffron party organised 340 explicitly hate speech events, a 580 per cent increase from 2023. Affiliated Hindutva organisations like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal accounted for 279 events. However, Congress-ruled states like Himachal also saw a 269 per cent hike in hate speech by Hindutva groups.

Of the 1,165 hate speeches, 995 appeared on streaming websites and social media sites like YouTube, Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) despite community guidelines against hate speech. Facebook accounted for 495 of them. BJP leaders also used these platforms to broadcast 266 anti-minority speeches.

It is to be noted that India is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which forbids “any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence”