Hate Offences by Suresh Chavhanke continue with impunity: Shrirampur, Ahmednagar Calls of violence against Muslims reverberate in Shrirampur as Chavhanke targets the Muslim community, says “We are not going to die. We are going to kill Adharmis;” birth anniversary of Maratha king provides another opportunity for hate mongering

17, May 2023 | Tanya Arora

Maharashtra has been the target of far-right extremist Hindutva goons since November 2022. The seeds of hatred sown in 1992 are now being watered on a regular basis by these hate mongers and hate speakers, who have been targeting vulnerable sections, mostly the Muslim community and provoking sections of the majority sections.

In Maharashtra, serial offenders like Suresh Chavhanke are exploiting the prevalent culture of impunity under a Eknath Shinde-BJP led government to excite emotions and generate the existing reservoirs of public rage, suspicion, and prejudice against the Muslim community. Rather, today, these notorious hate offenders are given an open platform to make repeated calls for an all-out attack against Indian Muslims.

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In a recent incident, a hate event, organised in Shrirampur, Maharashtra at the birth anniversary of Sambhaji Maharaj, it was Suresh Chavhanke of the controversial Sudharshan News who once again decided to deliver a speech, brazenly defiant of the Supreme Court, the law and the Constitution. In the said speech, he has not only targeted the Muslim community, but has also boasted about the fact that even though he has a large number of FIRs filed against him, no one has the audacity to take any “real” action against him. He has hinted that he enjoys political protection of the highest in the state and union governments.

Chavhanke has in this speech furthered the majoritarian Hindutva project: he has relentlessly fabricated facts and history, and then perpetuated the said lie by means of shouting anti-Muslim slurs, and targeting Aurangzeb for “every broken tile in a temple”. It is pertinent to note, that in addition to humiliating and attacking the Muslim community, causing mental and physical harm, Chavhanke has also mocked and belittled the police force of Maharashtra as well as the ministers and executives of state. He has implied that even the Chief Ministers of certain states are not interested in launching a criminal prosecution against him based on the belated consequential FIRs registered against him in certain cases, under relatively modest sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

At one point in his speech, Chavhanke compared the number of FIRs filed against him with the with the ones against the whole family of Atiq Ahmed, who was murdered extra judiciously in the state of Uttar Pradesh last month, saying that Chavhanke’s FIR are 10 times more in number. He also re-iterates that even though more than 1800 FIRs have been registered against him, no one has yet dared to file a charge sheet in the case. As recently as May 2023, an FIR had been filed against Chavhanke in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, for delivering a hate speech in December. However, the police’s unwillingness to take any action in furtherance to the filing of the FIR against the BJP’s golden lad exposes the flaw at the heart of the system being run by the BJP-led union and state governments. In the face of such impunity, the shamelessness of Chavhanke have now reached such heights that he openly issued a threat to the police authorities that if an FIR is filed against him in Shrirampur, he will be coming to the district on a monthly basis to deliver a hate speech.

The full transcript of the speech given by Chavhanke is as follows:

The speech:

“Your voice would not have even been heard by the miya living next door. Bhagyanagar, whom people refer to as Hyderabad, the traitors living there should be able to hear your voice.”

“There are certain lions amongst us who get influenced by the pigs. Those are the ones who will dial the number 112 to save their sisters if any pig looks at them with bad intentions, but I would not dial that number, but would rather close the eyes that look at my sister in that way.”

“This is a challenge to our masculinity, if the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is not constructed because a mosque stands opposite to it. In such a scenario, we need to understand what stands in front of us.”

“A few Muslims got upset with me, a Muslim minister told me a few days ago that they are upset with me. When I asked him the reason behind it, he said that he was upset with me because I used the word l***a (anti-Muslim slur). Tell me, he got upset over the fact that I called Aurangzeb a l***a. If I don’t call Aurangzeb a l***a, then whom should I call a l***a? This word is there today as it is in use, otherwise there are so many words that have gone extinct by now. Till the time this community considers Aurangzeb as their father, this word will be used by us no matter what anyone does.”

“These urus ((literal meaning wedding are festivities or commemorations at durgahs held during death anniversary of a Sufi saint, usually held at the saint’s shrine or tomb) are taken out, who given them the permission? And on the birth date of Chhtrapati Shivaji, we cannot take out a Shobha Yatra. Next time, you prepare to take a procession out in the whole of Srirampur, I will take care of the law and the required permissions.”

“There are 1826 FIRs filed against me, even Dawood did not have so many FIRs against him. Recently, Atiq Ahmed was killed in UP, and the news was showing the number of FIRs filed against Atiq, his children, his wives and his entire family. After this news came out, a law minister called me and said, that the total number of FIRs filed against Atiq and his whole family were 180, which constitutes a mere 10% of the total FIRs against me.”

“All these FIRs against me were not filed for any personal crime done by me, they were filed for raising my voice for the betterment of the Hindus. I just want to tell you that I will keep raising my voice for Hindus even if the number of FIRs against me reaches 18000 from the current 1800.”

“Even though FIRs have been filed, no one has had the audacity to file a charge sheet against me. The authorities of Shrirampur can also file an FIR against me, I don’t care, but let them know that I have come here after 6-7 years, and if they file an FIR, I will come here every day. You know, the chief minister of every state tells the authorities to file an FIR against me because they are under pressure, but they also tell them to not take it further as if a trial if started, I will come to that place every month and give more hate speeches. So, even the ministers think that it is better that I come once in every few years. So do not be scared.”

“I think, even the Maharashtra government needs a bulldozer now. So, I, on the behalf of Sudarshan TV, will be gifting a bulldozer to Shinde for Shrirampur.”

The crown scream ‘jai Shree Ram’. Only of the crowd member says ‘You keep going forward, we are with you. To which, Chavhanke asks ‘Till when are you going to be by my side?’ The audience member then replies and says, ‘till we die.’

Replying to this, Chavhanke says, “No, we are not going to die. We are going to kill Adharmis.”

“Aurangzeb- darinda, kamina, namak haram– sometimes when I speak about Aurangzeb this way, some people get upset as if Aurangzeb is their own grandfather. If we won’t speak badly about Aurangzeb, then will we speak about them? If we go and throw a shoe at the shrine of Aurangzeb every day, we will get blessings.”

“Aurangzeb even put his own father in jail, to gain the seat of Delhi and Agra, and to become the ruler of Maharashtra, he put his own father in jail. He even broke the neck of his own brothers, and for what? For the seat. He even captured his own son.”

“Aurangzeb would not even give water to his own father. Aurangzeb’s father, Shah Jahan, would say that the Hindu community is better than his own son. When the ancestors of Hindus die, they perform rituals for 15 days, and remember them for thousands of years, pay their respects and feed food. I want to ask the Indian Muslims- are you really happy and proud to be called as the ancestors of this man?”

“They made a mazhar inside the temple of Lord Narad Muni. Is this not humiliating for us? Only Sagar was the one who had showed courage, entered the temple and demolished the Mazhar. He was the one who had said that this mazhar will not stand here.”

“I want to tell the Maharashtra government to investigate whether a body is actually present inside these mazhars or not, as we have unveiled this new corruption and betrayal. In Haryana, there is this mazhar. I do not want to take any names, but all of you are aware that in Haryana, there exists one franchise of mazhars, where 150 mazhars exists of one name. I asked the authorities is one person has been cut into 150 pieces and then these mazhars have been build, or what is the case? We only know of one tradition of cutting these people have (referring to circumcision), then who is present at these 150 places?”

The video can be viewed here:

Location: Shrirampur, Maharashtra

Hate monger Suresh Chavhanke delivers communal speech targeting Muslims, used anti-muslim slurs, challenged police and gave an open call to commit violence against non-hindus. pic.twitter.com/NbdBeOahjz

— HindutvaWatch (@HindutvaWatchIn) May 15, 2023

In the speech above, it is apparent that Chavhanke uses clear words and issues clear threats to use force and violence against the minorities, especially the Muslim minority, all in the name of a Hindu Rashtra. It can also be deduced that Chavhanke has no fear of the law, or of the police authorities. Thus, it is necessary that a step more stringent that just filing of the FIR is done by the police, and that stringent action be taken against Chavhanke, holding him responsible for the inflammatory statements made by him, as well as the misinformation spread by him. While it is not difficult to trace the pattern of the police’s actions (or lack of them) on matters of Hindutva hate speech, we can only hope that with the recent guidelines of the Supreme court being issued on April 28, directing prompt and stringent action against hate speech, cognizance of all such speeches are taken, and these perpetrators are put behind bars.

Related:

Pursuant to complaint by CJP to Jalgaon police, against hate event on Apil 30, a diverse delegation of citizens approach police, demand prompt action

Defiant of the SC, Suresh Chavhanke, Raja Singh & Hindutva outfits escalate hate to dangerous levels

MP: AHP leader Pravin Togadia delivers hate speeches in 3 districts over 3 days, targets the religious minorities of India

Worsening Spiral of Communal Hate: State’s role in rising violence against minorities How the Supreme Court has interpreted hate speech over decades

Supreme Court trains its gaze on hate speech, once again

Stop Hate Speech: Supreme Court directs GOI to take action