As the biggest democracy in the world, India is being considered a pioneer in free speech tolerance against anyone and anything. It is a fundamental right enshrined into the basic structure of the Constitution of India. But in this contemporary world, the meaning of free speech has undergone various transformations or one could say a mutation of some sorts which has resulted into “Free Speech Terrorism” which the drafters of the Constitution would never have imagined in the first place.
Although the Indian Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary are quite clear on this concept, in order to uphold their political motives, some of the Indian citizens have turned to such Speech Terrorism which directly attacks the basic fundamentals of a Democracy. The concept of physical bombs have been replaced with Free Speech bombs time and again dropped at the integrity and dignity of India as a whole, by speech extremists who have nothing to gain in principle but everything to gain politically.
The year is 2014 and the majority party BJP under the leadership of Narendra Damodardas Modi comes into power at the Centre and forms the NDA-led Government in India. However, 2014 also marks the beginning of the conspiracy to wretchedly undermine the authority of India at the global platform. A whole span of 10 years of Congress leadership and a boatful of nationalized corruption quite similar to those of British and Islamic reigns over the last few centuries across India, cleared the air about the meaning of upright and transparent governance – that Congress cannot be the one leading this nation.
Nonetheless, the political delinquents left no stone unturned to topple the current Central authority of the National Democratic Alliance. Now the year is 2020 and the seeds of conspiracy sprouted into such a poisonous tree which only injects poison into the society. It all started with the NRC and Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) passed by the Government of India. Due to the horrendous and torturous acts committed by Muslims against its minorities comprising of Hindus, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs and Parsees in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, many refugees have migrated to India in the past decades.
Applying its secular ideologies, the Government of India passed the CAA in order to grant citizenship to the above-mentioned refugees. Moreover, after the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, lakhs of refugees belonging to multiple religions illegally migrated to India and settled mostly in the eastern states. Till date, such incoming was prevalent in Assam and West Bengal and therefore, to counter this situation, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was implemented so that the illegal migrants could be weeded out. However, a particular section of people vocally and violently opposed the two aforesaid legislation enacted by the Government of India and was declared to be anti-Muslims by the so-called leftists.
The protests against NRC and CAA started on December 15th, 2020 with a group of women in the form of an indefinite sitting at Shaheen Bagh, North East Delhi. Amongst them was a group named “Pinjra Tod Gang”. To people who have heard of Pinjara Tod, it may be a group formed solely for the purposes of protecting women rights as it was actually formed back in 2015 by a handful of women. However, a group formed to change the perception of women in the society now protesting against the revocation of Article 370 and organizing violent protests against the passing of NRC and CAA goes way beyond the idea of protecting the dignity and integrity of women. However, groups like Pinjra Tod are a product of something beyond humanity or morality – a long-standing struggle to overthrow a good government like BJP so that opposition parties could establish governance laced with the poison of corruption.
Pinjra Tod is practically not a mere group but a gang which is a part of a bigger and more horrendous conspiracy which has revealed itself shamelessly to the world. For instance, a Facebook post of around 1000 words by Pinjra Tod gang aimed at the Kashmir issue, specifically targeting Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and BJP as a whole, contained the word “women” only once and that too in a general sense. Now an organization solely formed for the protection of women targeting BJP and Kashmir issue while completely forgetting about social issues and shackles around women, depicts the integrity of such bogus organization even a layman could easily understand.
A small peaceful protest at Shaheen Bagh turned into an agitation making infants and children scapegoats which led to numerous deaths of the young ones, further leading to one of the most brutal and violent protests in the history of India. But it was only a blaze of wind when the storm was already coming. In the last week of February 2020, several buildings and markets in the Maujpur area were set on fire, vehicles were stopped and set ablaze, even journalists were not allowed to record anything as their cameras were snatched away. In the midst of this violence, a person named Mohammed Shahrukh suddenly stepped into the limelight and fired 8 pistol shots at the mob and inciting the mob to extreme violence. Although he absconded right away, he was later arrested by the police from Shamli in the first week of March 2020.
Consequently, curfew was imposed in various regions of the North East Delhi but the violence was still uncontainable which finally led to the deaths of more than 50 people. However, in the midst of all this commotion, the real objective of the perpetrators was being secretly carried out and numerous conspiracies were hatched beforehand. At the end of the riots, Ankit Sharma, a 26-year-old Intelligence Bureau staffer, was found dead in a drain in Chand Bagh area on 26th February 2020. He was found with 12 stab wounds and 33 blunt injuries, which clearly depicted a targeted murder and not a random killing resulting from a riot. Some eye-witnesses stated that Ankit Sharma was allegedly dragged by the mob in the office of Tahir Hussain, Aam Aadmi Party Councillor and was killed inside the office. After that, his body was dumped in the drain just 200 meters away from his house. An FIR was immediately registered against the AAP councillor and several perpetrators for the murder of Ankit Sharma.
The Indian visit of the U.S. President Donald Trump and Delhi riots happening simultaneously is more than just a coincidence, as rightly pointed out by Ms Kiran Bedi, where she stated, “The visit had a lot of potentials to strengthen the country’s economy. More economy means more wealth, jobs, industries and prosperity. The violence happened at the time when India was being lauded by the world’s most powerful country. Any true lover of the country would have never done this.” These words raise the million-dollar question – If the ruling party, i.e., BJP and their associates are inviting a foreign President to India, then who would cause the occurrence of these intervening riots at the same time to malign the reputation of India and BJP itself?
The narrative has evidently tried to surround the BJP leader Kapil Mishra for the inception of the Delhi riots. But then one more question arises as to why would the ruling party sabotage itself during Trump’s visit, which makes no sense at all. Mishra’s alleged hate speech on 23rd February 2020 has been held by many Urban Naxals to be a catalyst for Delhi riots but everyone in the world has very conveniently forgotten the anti-secular and anti-national statements made by AIMIM Leader Waris Pathan on February 16th 2020 in a rally in Karnataka, a week before the Kapil Mishra’s alleged statements, where Mr Pathan stated, “We have to take Azadi, things we don’t get by asking, we have to take it by force, remember it… we maybe 15 crores in number but are heavy on 100 crores, remember it.”
An FIR was lodged against him for such statements but the anti-Hindu narrative promulgated by the urban Naxals immediately suppressed such statements and people lost track of the same. Similar was a fate of anti-India statements made by Sharjeel Imam in the eyes of Urban Naxals. So the answer to the above-mentioned question is that who would gain the most in tarnishing the image of BJP in front of the whole world – it is either the Pinjra Tod Gang or the opposition parties or the urban Naxals or the Leftists or it is something much beyond a local conspiracy, comprising All of Them at once.
On 2nd June 2020, a 1,030 pages charge-sheet was filed against Tahir Hussain (the mastermind of the conspiracy in Delhi Riots) and 14 others in Karkardooma Court in connection to the Delhi Riots. The police have found petrol bombs at the terrace of Tahir Hussain. They have also found that Tahir Hussain has 100 live ammunition from which only 64 ammunition and 22 shells have been recovered, which further shows the pre-planned conspiracy of Delhi Riots hatched by Tahir Hussain with the help of various organizations and people including the Pinjra Tod Gang, Umar Khalid, etc.
In the Jafrabad Riot case also the Delhi Police filed a charge sheet on the same day. The list of arrested accused persons, in this case, includes the names of Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita. Both Natasha and Devangana belong to “Pinjratod Gang” and were actively involved in hatching the conspiracy to cause riots near Jafrabad Metro Station. They were also part of a larger conspiracy and were found to be connected to the “India Against Hate” group and Umar Khalid. The message found in the phone of an accused, on Whatsapp chat, reveals the conspiracy and the extent of preparation for causing riots.
Both the charge sheets of the Delhi Police make it clear that the Delhi riots were done in a completely planned manner. Their main objective was to disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the country during the visit of US President Trump and throw Delhi into a state of anarchy.
The current anti-India narrative promulgated by various individuals, groups and organizations are trying hard in tainting the true picture of the Indian society. All these individuals, groups and organizations have united in an anti-India and anti-secular movement in the past few years and have bathed in the blood of the Naxal narrative of destroying India. In this regard, the term “Urban Naxals” has come into being. According to Vivek Agnihotri, a Bollywood Filmmaker, an ‘Urban Naxal’ is an intellectual, influencer or activist who is an invisible enemy of India.
Now in the present context, it becomes quite relevant when people like Swara Bhaskar, Kanhaiya Kumar, with their ulterior ambitions of procuring a seat in the Parliament, specifically targets the policies of the Central Government or specifically, the BJP. However, it is astonishing as to where the voices of these people were, when the Commonwealth scams and the 2G scams during the Congress-led Government were looting the Indian people at a magnitude of 1 lakh crore Rupees or very recently on 16 April 2020, a group of men lynched two Hindu Sadhus and their driver in Gadchinchale Village, Palghar District, Maharashtra in the presence of policemen or 40-year-old Kashmiri pandit sarpanch Ajay Pandita was killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag on 08 June 2020.
Free Speech has been weaponized and targeted for the past few years now as the Urban Naxals have continually shown. The democratic freedom of free speech has vehemently and maliciously crossed the limits of the fundamental right thereby attacking the whole state order in the country. In contemporary India, people like Swara Bhaskar, Arundhati Roy, Kanhaiya Kumar provide their active vocal support to terrorists like Afzal Guru which itself questions the whole structure and premise of the fundamental right of free speech and expression.
Urban Naxals have not only supported anti-India movements and slogans, but they have also gone to the extreme lengths of discrediting the Constitution of India and every one of its laws therein. Bygone are those days when terrorists used Bombs to kill and destroy – the age of Free Speech Terrorism totally unregulated by any law or authority has arrived in India as the words themselves are more than enough for these Urban Naxals to create any kind of bomb to destroy India.
Delhi Riots 2020 is the biggest example of such Free Speech Terrorism laced with the poisonous conspiracy of Pinjra Tod Gang, AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain, Opposition Parties, Umar Khalid, Waris Pathan, etc to completely shatter the efforts of peace and harmony established by the BJP-led government. It is the animosity towards a better India and hunger for power which is driving these Urban Naxals towards Hate Speech and violence.
The inciting statements of Sharjeel Imam, Waris Pathan and Umar Khalid and various other Leftists and Urban Naxals right before the Delhi Riots, complete deviation of Pinjra Tod Gang from their founding objectives of protecting women rights, visit of US President, the re-election of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister of India, passing of CAA bill and NRC have been key contributors in the hatching of the conspiracy to undermine the integrity of India before the global audience which has been a complete success in their eyes but fortunately, India as a country with such a rich culture, democratic approach and Unity in diversity is much more above the dreams of these Urban Naxals. These people consider themselves to be above law as evident from their anti-nationalist and anti-secular speeches.
Recently, Safoora Zargar, an activist allegedly leading the anti-CAA protests was booked under the Unlawful Activities Act and was arrested. Although she was even denied bail, Urban Naxals have tried to transform a criminal into a victim by playing her pregnancy card while stating that she was arrested while being pregnant. Now if we go by such a thought process, it can be inferred that any pregnant woman in the territory of India can wage war against the Government of India and go free just because she is pregnant. If only the criminal justice system could work through such an absurd theory, Nalini Srihara wouldn’t have been arrested in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as at the time of arrest, she was 2-months pregnant. Using such tactics, the Urban Naxals have been continuously trying to swerve the Indian narrative against the BJP and in that process, Delhi Riots was just the beginning.
Ankit Sharma, Dalbir Singh Negi, Rattan Lal, Veerbhan, Vinod Singh Kashyap, Dinesh Kumar Khatik, Rahul Solanki, Maroof Ali and Rahul Singh are some of the many innocent people who died at the hands of a political and anti-nationalist agenda of the Urban Naxals. It is estimated that if the US President was not visiting at that time, Delhi Riots would not have occurred as the same was a well-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by the Anti-nationalists, Leftists and Urban Naxals hand-in-gloves in order to destroy the integrity and dignity of India before the world.
The road starting from the conspiracy and leading to remove BJP led Government from power in the centre has been full of anti-national activities and on such a dangerous road, murder and destruction of India are only part and parcel of the end goal for these anti-nationalists. While Kapil Mishra and his associates were tending to the Delhi Riot victims with his various relief works, these anti-nationalists were busy blaming the BJP government which further shows the evil spirit residing in their souls. Now is the time for the Indian people to reunite and fight against these anti-nationalists and Free Speech Terrorists in order to save our country from these wretched hands of Urban Naxals.
(This article has been authored by Rachit Devgun who is a lawyer by profession and practicing law in Supreme Court of India and various High Courts, since 2006. He is also a social commentator and a columnist)
