Senior journalists and media personalities have issued a collective appeal to all constitutional institutions in the country to step in and uphold their constitutional mandate in the wake of open calls from various quarters for attacks on India’s religious minorities, especially Muslims.

The appeal titled ‘In the face of orchestrated hatred, silence is not an option’, signed by leading journalists, said, the concerted amplification of hatred has been growing over the past years, as has the attendant advocacy of violence. “Sometimes, the occasion is an election, at other times it is a political gathering, a so-called ‘dharam sansad’, or a controversy over clothing, or even the screening of a movie,” the appeal noted.

It further said these calls for violence – which have been widely reported in the media – have been met with a cold and calculated silence from the country’s top leaders. “Months before, we saw systematic hate being propagated against Muslims under the pretext of Covid-19, including calls by legislators for their socio-economic boycott. Disturbingly, the term ‘corona jihad’ was fabricated and amplified by sections of the media establishment,” the statement said.

Unwilling political executive

Calls for violence or the socio-economic boycott of a community clearly do not enjoy the constitutional protection of free speech. And yet, the political executive – both at the level of the Union and in several States – appears unwilling to discharge its constitutional obligation to act. “Against this backdrop, the President of India, the Chief Justices and other Judges of the Supreme Court of India and the various High Courts, the Election Commission of India, and other constitutionally provisioned and statutory bodies are constitutionally obliged to ensure that these calls for violence do not translate into something unimaginably worse,” the appeal said.

The appeal noted that since December 2021, well-synchronised calls for the annihilation of Muslims have been made, beginning with a religious meet in Haridwar that month, besides systematic targetting of Muslim women and girls in 2021 and 2022 through social media platforms, including the pernicious Bulli Bai app. The appeal also highlighted that the controversy over the hijab in Karnataka has resulted in Muslim women in different parts of India being harassed and humiliated.

“Most recently, the screening of ‘The Kashmir Files’ – a film that cynically exploits the suffering and tragedy of the Kashmiri pandits by using their plight as a pretext for the promotion of hatred against Muslims – has seen orchestrated attempts inside and outside movie halls to incite anti-Muslim sentiment. Attempts have been made from the highest levels of government to stifle fully justified criticism of the film and of the violent reaction it is generating by claiming there is a “conspiracy” afoot to “discredit” it,” the appeal said.

The signatories of the appeal include N Ram, former Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu & Director, The Hindu Publishing Group; senior journalist and writer Mrinal Pande; Vinod Jose, Executive Editor of Caravan; Siddharth Vardarajan, Founder Editor, The Wire and Teesta Setalvad, Co-Editor of Sabrangindia, among others.

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