1,807 COMMUNAL RIOT CASES REGISTERED DURING 2018-2020
A total of 1,807 communal riot cases were registered in different parts of the country during 2018-2020 in which 8,565 people were arrested, the Rajya Sabha was informed on February 2. Replying to a written question in the Upper House, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said the highest number of communal riot cases was registered in Bihar, followed by Maharashtra and Haryana. A total of 512 communal riot cases were registered across India in 2018, 438 in 2019 and 857 in 2020, Rai noted. While 4,097 people were arrested for riots in 2018 in different parts of the country, 2,405 people were arrested in 2019 and 2,063 in 2020, he said. A total of 4,169 people were charge-sheeted in 2018, 2,281 in 2019 and 1,908 in 2020, he added. Altogether, 200 people were convicted for the riots in 2018, 332 in 2019 and 229 in 2020.
RSS MAN ARRESTED IN TN FOR HARASSING NUNS
Ganesh Babu, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member, was arrested on January 29 for harassing two nuns near Illuppur in Tamil Nadu’s Pudukkottai district, claiming that they were engaged in religious conversion, The News Minute reported on January 30. He allegedly snatched their mobile phones and two-wheeler. Ganesh was accompanied by 20 to 30 unidentified people, Illuppur police was cited as saying. The incident occurred on January 21 and Ganesh was arrested on Saturday and produced before a magistrate on Sunday and has been lodged in the Aranthangi sub jail. A case has been registered under sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 294(b) (obscenity), 387 (extortion) of the IPC and the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act. Earlier that month, a church inside a school in Coimbatore was vandalised. Three Hindu Munnani Katchi members were arrested in connection with the case.
VHP, BD CALL FOR AN ECONOMIC BOYCOTT AGAINST NON-HINDUS
The VHP (Vishva Hindu Parishad) and Bajrang Dal have called for an economic boycott against non-Hindus in Karnataka, Times Now on January 31. They put up posters in Bangalore asking people to not buy goods from “non-Hindus” during the festival. Members of both groups pledged not to buy goods from “non-Hindus” shopkeepers. Congress in Karnataka slammed them for putting up posters across Bangalore. Congress also asked the police to intervene in this matter and remove the posters. Congress said that this kind of practice should not be there.
NAMAZ ROOM IN KSR RAILWAY STATION ‘THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY’?
Right-wing outfit Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) on January 31 wrote a letter to the Indian Railways, raising objections to a porters’ resting room in Bengaluru’s Krantiveera Sangoli Rayanna (KSR) railway station being used for offering namaz by some Muslim patrons. In the letter, the Samiti called it “a threat from a national security standpoint” and alleged that, if permitted, may result in “demands to convert this place (the railway station) into a masjid. A Twitter handle had claimed that the porters’ resting room at Platform No. 5 of the station had been converted into a namaz room for Muslims. This led members of Goa-based HJS to barge into the resting room on January 31, while people were praying inside, and demand that the authorities deny them permission to pray. There are two temples situated at the railway station; one on Platform no. 7 and another near the locomotive shed. There is also a small room where the Christian community offers prayers. Twitterati have slammed the organisation’s move as disturbing the communal harmony between different religious groups.