Hate speech: Over 100 ex-bureaucrats seek action against BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur

• The statement was signed by 103 retired civil servants, including Najeeb Jung, Wajahat Habibullah, Harsh Mander, Julio Ribeiro and Aruna Roy
• They also urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to refer the matter to the Committee of Ethics of the Lower House for action
• A daily dose of venom is spewed, in the print, visual and social media against different non-Hindu communities, primarily against Muslims, and more lately against Christians as well, underlines the statement

More than 100 former bureaucrats on Saturday sought action against Bharatiya Janata Party MP Pragya Singh Thakur in connection with a recent hate speech wherein she urge Hindus to stock weapons at home to give “befitting reply” to those involved in “love jihad”.

The former civil servants on Saturday in a statement issued under the banner of the Constitutional Conduct Group said that the context and the use of the term “love jihad” leaves no doubt that Thakur was targeting Muslims with her remarks.

“It is also possible that she was sending out a warning against Christians and other non-Hindu communities as well,” they added.

“Though Pragya Thakur appears to have cleverly chosen her words to avoid criminal charges being made against her, the disguise is only a thin one. She is obviously fomenting hate against non-Hindu communities and advocating violence against them.”

The statement was signed by 103 retired civil servants, including Former Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, former Indian Administrative Services officers Harsh Mander, Julio Ribeiro and Aruna Roy.

They have demanded strict action against the BJP parliamentarian as she has not only committed several offences under the Indian Penal Code but violated the oath taken by her as a Member of Parliament to uphold the Constitution of India. “By her incendiary hate speech and her repeated acts of propagating hate, she has forfeited the ethical right to be a Member of Parliament,” the statement added.

They also urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to refer the matter to the Committee of Ethics of the Lower House for action. “The very fact that an FIR [first information report] has been registered by the police against the Member of Parliament for inciting hatred should be ground enough to take action,” the statement said.

“A daily dose of venom is spewed, in the print, visual and social media against different non-Hindu communities, primarily against Muslims, and more lately against Christians as well. Often, these verbal attacks are accompanied by physical violence, assaults on their places of worship, anti-conversion legislation, hurdles placed in the way of inter-faith marriages, denial of livelihoods and […] other actions to lower their status in society. A compliant media and systematic distortion of history by people in positions of authority feed this frenzy of communal hate,” the letter alleges.

The MP from Bhopal while addressing an event organised by the Hindu Jagarana Vedike on December 25 in poll-bound Karnataka’s Shivamogga city had said that Hindus have the right to respond to those who attack them and their dignity. “They have a tradition of jihad, if nothing they do Love Jihad,” she had said, referring to the right-wing’s conspiracy theory that Muslims have an organised attempt at luring Hindu girls. “Answer those involved in Love Jihad… Protect your girls, teach them the right values.”

The FIR was filed on December 28 against Thakur under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, and race) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the IPC.

-INDIA NEWS STREAM