On January 20, Citizens for Justice and Peace complained to the SDPO, Boisar and Addl SP, Palghar and DGP of Maharashtra to register a complaint against the hate speech given by Senior Vishwa Hindu Prasad, Shankar Gaikar. In the said speech, given at a Shaurya Path Sanchalan Event held at Boisar district of Maharashtra, he made derogatory statements and spewed hate against the Muslims by attacking their culture and history.
In the complaint, CJP has highlighted that the communal and hate spewing speech delivered by Gaikar who espouses a hard, right-wing, exclusionist ideology, through which he has targeted and othered the Muslim Community. He has made deliberate attempts of instigating and provoking his audience by bringing in a version of Maratha history and Islamic history to suggest, prejudicially, a history of conflict.
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With an aim of spreading social disharmony, Gaikar can be heard making Islamophobic statements throughout the video, such as, “Kisi mei itni takat nahi hindu ki beti utha kar le jae. Kururta unke khoon mei basi hai yeh dhayan mei rakho. Hindu kabhi krur nahi hota, hindu har samay shrur hota hai, who saamne se ladhta hai. (No one has the power to take away the daughter of a Hindu. Keep in mind that the bitterness is in their blood. Hindu is never cruel, Hindu is always angry, and hefights from the front.)” “Gaddari ka kaam kabhi Hindu karta nahi hai. (Hindus never function with treachery.)”
It is pertinent to note that this is not the first time that Gaikar has made troubling claims and Islamophobic comments. In year 2017, Shankar Gaikar stoked up a controversy by demanding that the recruitment of Kashmiri Muslim youth in the security forces be stopped. Gaikar alleged that there were incidents of theft of weapons and ammunitions from the security forces. According to him, these weapons were used against our own forces. So, he demanded that the recruitment of Muslim youths from Kashmir should stop. In the year 2019, post the judgment of the Supreme Court on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit, Shankar Gaikar said that, “I feel proud to have participated in the cleansing of sins with the demolition of the Babri Masjid”.
Through the complaint to the Maharashtra police, CJP has sought swift and stringent action against Gaikar under certain sections of the IPC in view to the overall unsafe atmosphere for the Muslim community that is being generated through the systemic and the perpetrated use of hate speech and writing within the country.
The entire complaint can be read here:
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Maharashtra: Shankar Gaikar gives anti-Muslim speech at Shaurya Path Sanchalan event