Understanding the Haridwar conclave

Incitement to violence against a community is wrongly being referred to only as hate speech

In January, Gregory Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch, who had predicted a genocide in Rwanda years before it took place in 1994, sounded the alarm on violence against Muslims in India. He condemned the statements made at the ‘Dharam Sansad’ organised in Haridwar and said that they were intended to incite violence. Genocide Watch is an international organisation established to prevent genocide and other kinds of mass murder and is credited with making critical interventions over the years.

This statement reveals the quick and radical shift in India’s sociopolitical narrative. The Dharam Sansad deserves to be acknowledged as an open call for violence against a community. Moreover, the state’s inaction to proceed against the perpetrators violates principles under the Constitution and international law.