The radicalization of Indian Muslim youth has reached dangerous levels and Hindus across the nation are now facing horrific hate crimes similar to what is witnessed on a daily basis in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

In the latest such hate crime, 52-year-old Rajesh Dhar Dubey was brutally mowed down by a Muslim taxi driver whom Rajesh’s family had hired for a wedding. A resident of Kolahi village of Mirzapur district, Rajesh had come along with the marriage procession of his nephew to Mirzapur on June 11.

After the marriage, Rajesh and his friends, including former Mahokhar village sarpanch Dhirendra Pandey, boarded the taxi to return home. Eyewitnesses revealed that the occupants in the car started a political discussion in which Rajesh was praising CM Yogi, especially for building high quality roads in UP, like the one they were driving on.

Dhirendra Pandey told the media that Rajesh was all praises for CM Yogi Adityanath, that he had curbed crime. Pandey also quoted Rajesh as having praised PM Modi for housing, toilets and gas.

After listening to Rajesh’s arguments for some time, driver Amjad got infuriated and started abusing Yogi-Modi. When Rajesh asked him to restrain himself, Amjad got into an argument with him. The other occupants of the car intervened and tried to calm matters.

There are conflicting reports on what happened next. Some reports say that after other passengers got off at their respective destinations, Rajesh was the only passenger left in the car. Amjad reportedly stopped the car in the middle of the road and asked Rajesh to get down. As Rajesh was walking to his house, Amjad rammed his speeding Bolero car into him from behind, knocking him to the ground and then dragging him for another 200 metres or so, this crushing him to death before fleeing.

The other version is even more blood-curdling. Amjad reportedly opened the passenger side door and pushed Rajesh out of the car. He got hold of the side mirror of the vehicle and tried to cling to it but the accused sped the vehicle and as a result Rajesh was trapped under the jeep and crushed to death. The other occupants of the car forced Amjad to stop the car and rushed to help Rajesh, but it was too late. In the confusion, Amjad managed to get away.

Angry locals later blocked traffic on the Prayagraj-Mirzapur state highway. Following protests, ADM Shiv Pratap Shukla and SP City Shrikant Prajapati reached the spot and assured everyone of inquiry and arrest.

The accused driver Amjad, a resident of Chanbey in the district, was later arrested, police sources said on Tuesday.

This incident again demonstrates how any interaction with the so-called ‘minority’ community is currently fraught with danger for the so-called ‘majority’. Apart from the very real threat of grooming jihad & Islamist violence at the drop of a hat due to decades of unchecked indoctrination against ‘idol-worshippers’, the current propaganda against the BJP-Sangh by left-liberal-Islamist intelligentsia around issues like Triple Talaq, Ram Mandir, Article 370, CAA etc has made the situation even more inflammable.

On the one hand, Indian Muslim youth are told by their clerics, elders and community leaders that they are the ‘rightful owners of this country who bestowed civilization upon it’, on the other hand they are also told that they are being ‘victimized’ by the Hindu majority. This toxic discourse has seeped deep into the Indian Muslim polity.

As we have argued before, both communities need to practise social distancing till the time the Islamist radicalization infrastructure in the form of mosques, madrasas and groups like Tablighi Jamaat, Jamaat-e-Islami etc are not dismantled or brought under control. Our law enforcement agencies and judiciary are trained to ignore this religious radicalization which is behind so many crimes the nation is witnessing, due to political correctness, a distorted understanding of secularism, and sheer apathy and desire to reduce case load. That too must change if the country has to come back to a semblance of normalcy.