Report highlights Hindutva Groups Role in Goa Ram Navami Violence; attempt to vandalize Churches and Mosques
A citizens-led fact-finding report has revealed that the communal violence in Goa state during the Ram Navami celebrations in April 2022 was orchestrated by Hindu right-wing groups and enjoyed significant protection from police action.
The fact-finding team constituted by the Citizens’ Initiatives for Communal Harmony (CICH), consisting of prominent lawyers, researchers, and educationists, found that the violence was pre-planned by Hindu extremists through WhatsApp groups and other social media channels.
“The rally was thus not merely a religious rally to celebrate Ram Navami but had an inherent Hindutva color from the start,” the report says.
The report highlights a clear pattern of creating disturbance near the Christian and Muslim places of worship.
The report observed that the efforts were made to interrupt prayers at the mosque with chants of “Jai Shri Ram,” “Muslims are terrorists,” and terms the police action of arresting only Muslims in FIRs while giving free passage to the rally organizers, who engineered anti-Muslim violence.
India Denies Entry to Award-Winning British Architecture Professor
The immigration officers at the New Delhi airport denied entry to UK-based award-winning architect and scholar Lindsay Bremner and deported her back to London.
On Sunday, July 17, Bremner, a professor of architecture at the University of Westminster, was turned away by the Indian government despite having a proper visa.
“Was denied entry to India today despite having a valid visa and UK passport. Reason given – immigration issues. When pressed, was again told immigration issues. Put on a flight back to London without any room for recourse,” Bremner tweeted.
She was on an academic visit to explore further opportunities for collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras. According to The Wire, Bremner frequently tweeted on topics related to India.
Pertinently, in March this year, renowned anthropologist Filippo Osella was similarly denied entry at Thiruvananthapuram airport in Kerala and deported.
CCTV Visuals Suggest Men Offered Namaz in Lulu Mall Not Muslims
The controversy that sparked with a viral video of a group of eight men offering prayers at the newly opened Lulu Mall in the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh state has turned out to be a staged conspiracy. The CCTV footage suggests that the men had no clue how to perform the Muslim prayers, and was done purposefully to incite hatred against Muslims.
Many activists had flagged concerns of a conspiracy on social media as the men in the video did not face Kaaba while offering Muslim prayer, and two of the men rushed to film the namaz.
After the video went viral, the Hindu right-wing groups took offense at the video. They requested permission from the relevant authorities to recite the Hanuman Chalisa (Hindu chants) in the same mall, which was subsequently denied.
The Hindu right-wing outfits also started a boycott campaign against the mall, which is owned by Lulu Group International, a company founded by M A Yusuff Ali, a Muslim businessman from the India’s state of Kerala.
The case was registered in response to a complaint filed by mall representatives, who stated that the individuals visible in the video were not mall employees. On Friday, mall officials posted posters across the property announcing that no religious prayers would be tolerated in the mall.
