Hindu militant monk Yogi Adiyanath declares India as a “Hindu nation”
Hindu extremist leader and militant monk Yogi Adityanath declared India to be a “Hindu nation”, during an interview with a news channel. “India was, is and will continue to be a Hindu nation,” he said, claiming that all citizens of the country are Hindus.
Hindus like Adityanath who support the extremist ideology of Hindutva believe that India should no longer be a secular democracy, and instead be a fascist entho-state.
Adityanath argued that Hindu identity is not associated with a creed, religion or sect but is a cultural term.
“When someone from India goes to perform Hajj (Muslim pilgrimage), he is addressed as a Hindu there. No one there sees him as Hajji, no one accepts him as Islam, there he is addressed by the name of Hindu,” he falsely claimed.
Adityanath is the current Chief Minister of the Uttar Pradesh state, which is governed by the Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Data shows that Uttar Pradesh is one of the most dangerous states to be a minority due to high rates of hate crimes, especially as extremists are directly encouraged by leaders of the BJP, including Adityanath himself.
Hindu extremists vandalize mosque in Uttar Pradesh state amid police presence
A violent mob of Hindu extremists vandalized a mosque under construction in Hindu supremacist BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh state, while police watched as silent spectators.
The extremists belong to the violent Hindu supremacist groups Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
The mob blocked the road in front of the mosque, rampaged through construction materials, and yelled slogans of “Jai Shree Ram,” a religious slogan turned warcry by Hindu supremacists.
The incident is the latest in a trend of rising attacks on minority places of worship across India.
https://twitter.com/HindutvaWatchIn/status/1626071849162473473?s=20
Editors across globe demand release of Kashmiri journalist Fahad Shah
Editors of several prominent media outlets across the world – including The Guardian, Insider, Foreign Affairs, and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting – have demanded in a statement the immediate release of Kashmiri journalist Fahad Shah, who has been languishing in jail for over a year under draconian laws.
“The Kashmir Walla, which Mr. Shah founded, elevates the voices of everyday people and stands fast against unjust laws with honest reporting. But Mr. Shah has paid a heavy price for that work,” read the statement.
Indian officials arrested Shah in February 2022, in a clear attempt to silence not just Shah, but other Kashmiris who dissent against the brutal policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu supremacist regime.
The statement was issued by Katharine Viner, Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian; Boyoung Lim, Senior Editor of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting; Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, Editor of Foreign Affairs; D. D. Guttenplan, Editor of The Nation; Dave Besseling, Editor of the South China Morning Post Long-reads; Erica Berenstein, Executive Producer of News and Documentary at Insider; Ravi Agrawal, Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Policy; and Mark Sappenfield, Editor of the Christian Science Monitor.
“Mr. Shah’s case is a sharp reminder of the need to strengthen free voices as efforts to shut them down intensify daily around the globe. His release is particularly important to the cause of free press in Kashmir,” the statement added.
Since the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s political autonomy in August 2019, press freedom and rights groups have documented numerous incidents of detentions and threats to journalists in the region.
