By Raju Rajagopal, Co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR)

Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), committed to speaking out against human rights violations of all communities in India, U.S. and beyond, condemns the brutal assault on students and faculty at JNU by ABVP and other right-wing Hindutva groups. We join the tsunami of voices in India demanding the immediate arrest of the perpetrators, many of whom have already been identified. And we support calls for holding a complicit administration accountable for the heinous acts and for attempting to destroy a reputable university from within.

We note with considerable angst that an outfit named Hindu Raksha Dal has publicly owned up to the assault. That such violent groups should claim to be speaking for all Hindus and are purportedly ‘protecting’ Hinduism is an insult to a large majority of Hindus who are peaceful and tolerant. However, at this hour of crisis in India, it is this ‘silent majority’ that must speak out louder and louder, to say “Not in Our Names.” Our continued silence, especially when most of our Hindu religious leaders seem to be totally missing in action, is tantamount to acquiescence in the dangerous policies of BJP/RSS/ABVP that bring shame on all Hindus and bring disrepute to the secular and democratic country that we all love.

The Chronology:

·      Desperate SOS calls and messages from JNU students hiding in hostel rooms, as masked attackers descend upon them with sticks and rods and hammers. Scores of students and faculty injured. 

·      Video tapes surface showing the marauders entering the campus, as security personnel look on, and roaming the corridors of hostels with their weapons. The destruction in their wake is shocking. 

 ·      WhatsApp exchanges among the attackers surface clearly shows planning and conspiracy, among some inside the campus and some outsiders, with intent to harm. Social media quickly identify some of the attackers.

 ·      Proof of damage control by the assaulters, as they fiddle with their WhatsApp group to make it appear that it was the ‘leftist’ and Muslim students who were conspiring to attack [Attack their own friends?]

 ·      Media debunks that claim proving that other students’ telephone numbers were added to the WhatsApp group after the attack had occurred! https://scroll.in/article/948899/jnu-whatsapp-messages-planning-attack-traced-to-abvp-activists

 ·      Media also debunks the widely circulated video purporting to show a ‘leftist‘ student attacking an ABVP member. The video was widely shared by right-wing groups and politicians to prove their claim that it was the leftist students who were the assaulters. It positively identifies the assaulter (not the victim) as a ABVP member! https://www.altnews.in/video-of-abvp-member-assaulting-aisa-student-shared-by-journalists-as-left-parties-attacking-abvp/

·      Despite the mounting evidence against ABVP, some main stream media buy into the ‘He-Said-She-Said narrative,’ as if there were two sides to the story, when it is crystal clear who were the attackers and who were the victims. Business Standard

·      The police sound sincere in their announcement of launching a thorough investigation, raising hopes that they will act to uphold the law without political interference.

·      But instead of going after the identified attackers, the Delhi Police, in a shameful surrender to the ruling class, has now filed a complaint against the President of the Students Union, who was one of the targeted victims of the attack. https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/jnu-violence-delhi-police-faces-flak-as-no-arrest-but-fir-against-aishe-ghosh-other-students-6204504/

Welcome to RSS/BJP/ABVP’s Hindu Rashtra! Or should we say “Hindutva Rashtra” so we do not insult a majority of the Hindus who do not subscribe to the extremist idealogy of the RSS/VHP/BJP?