VP speak

The vice president is the first person holding high office to speak out against the purveyors of hate, who have been freely and openly spewing anti-minority rhetoric, including calls for genocide. Last week, a group of public intellectuals including five retired chiefs of the armed forces wrote to the president, prime minister and others seeking action against a recent “Dharam Sansad” in Haridwar, where individuals in saffron robes goaded a gathering to take a pledge to do violence in order to establish a “Hindu rashtra”. Seventy-six lawyers have petitioned the Supreme Court to take suo motu action against those who poured venom on stage at the Haridwar conclave and pointed out that state authorities were failing to act against hate speech against Muslims. The Uttarakhand government has announced an SIT to probe the incident. Meanwhile, censure from civil society had forced BJP MP from Karnataka, Tejaswi Surya, to withdraw his inflammatory comments and minority-baiting — his statement was preceded by attacks on churches in Karnataka (and elsewhere) and the introduction of an anti-conversion law by the Bommai government. While several civil society actors and public intellectuals have criticised the open attempts to target Muslim and Christian minorities, the sepulchral silence in the higher echelons of the ruling establishment is disturbing. Vice President Naidu’s words should prod others holding high office to condemn the purveyors of hate and the vigilantes, and ensure that they are brought to book.

Even as the law must take its due course, however, the problem needs to be addressed politically. The perception that anti-Muslim, anti-Christian campaigns and vigilantism have the sanction of the powerful needs to be broken. For that, those in power, those who hold high office, need to speak out — like the vice president did.