'Haridwar hate speech being misused by Leftists to malign country & govt': Ex-IFS officers

In the aftermath of the Haridwar hate speech that evoked strong reactions from people and politicians across the country, a group of former IFS officers on Wednesday slammed the 'selective' condemnation of such incidents by the Left lobby. In a statement released by 32 signatories today, the ex-IFS officials remarked that calls for violence against any community must be unequivocally condemned regardless of their religious, ethnic, ideological or regional origin.

Referring to the controversy over the communal remarks made at a Dharam Sansad in Haridwar last week, they said, "A tirade of accusations has been let loose in an effort to falsely portray the Haridwar speeches as a force, very much larger than the 'fringe groups' that the critics themselves represent."

"A slew of articles has appeared in the press by predictable personalities in a seemingly coordinated attempt to malign the state of affairs in the country. Some journalists, speaking to the international media, have exposed their political bias by using terms like ‘genocide’ to describe the impact on a particular community.

On a media platform in the Gulf countries, they have ranted about “countless mosques destroyed, countless Muslims killed, the third-largest Muslim population in the world targeted for ‘genocide’” in India and more in the same vein."

They further remarked that the Haridwar incident is being projected 'ridiculously' as a peril for all Indians.

"PM Modi’s message of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas, is mocked by alleging that this is meant just for one community (the majority community), and not for all," the statement read. 

It added that India’s national security is not as much threatened by a handful of sundry Hindu activists saying some nasty things about the minorities in some forum of little importance and aggressively asserting their Hindu identity. The officials noted that several prominent seers in Haridwar have condemned their utterances as provocative, irresponsible and 'damaging to the religious and social harmony of India'. 

Besides this, action, including arrest, has been taken by the concerned state governments against the perpetrators. The redressal mechanisms are at work already.

'Critics using Haridwar hate speech to target Modi Govt'

"Rather than seeking to end all calls for violence, regardless of the source, the objective of the critics seems to be to heap blame on the government in power. In the first place, they seek to blame the government in power for every statement made by any group anywhere in the country, which uses the name ‘Hindu’.

Secondly, these arm-chair critics choose to ignore or dismiss equally virulent calls for violence and threats of violence made by not merely fringe groups, but by mainstream political figures in other communities, who have ranted about needing “only 15 minutes” to finish off the majority community. Another mainstream political party figure incited the people of one community to come together to create four Pakistans in India," it added.

"One-sided lessons to Hindus on secularism will not help build a secular India that these activists espouse. They, as the responsible citizens that they claim to be, should be taking more balanced positions as a measure of their commitment to a secular India," the statement said.