Vandalizing Hindu temples and desecrating murtis happens with sickening regularity all over the subcontinent. The secular state and Hinduphobic media treat it as an ordinary crime, like someone breaking a traffic rule, or just ignore it altogether as many of our elites anyway believe the ‘Hinduism is a fake religion’ rhetoric, so see nothing untoward in a temple being demolished.

Islamists, evangelists and now even Khalistanis derive a perverse pleasure from breaking murtis and hurting Hindu sentiments, all due to the indoctrination they receive from radical clergy.

In yet another such incident, one Yakub desecrated a Bhagwan Shiv Mandir in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. Locals caught him in the act and handed him over to the police.  

Local Hindu devotees saw that he had defiled the murti in Titawi village and the nameplate containing Hindu mantras. Later on, Titawi police station in-charge, Mukesh Solanki identified the accused as Yakub, son of Asghar. Yakub removed the murti kept inside a glass showcase and smashed it on the floor. The nameplate inscribed with Devi Kali’s mantras lay broken on the floor.

Local police reached the spot after the news of the incident spread. Devotees looked agitated, yet they handed over the accused to the police. Videos showed several police officers guarding Yakub even as many devotees gathered outside and protested. Reports suggested that the locals handed over Yakub only after the police assured them of a fair and speedy probe. 

Reporters from OpIndia spoke to Mukesh, but he claimed that only the murti was damaged. Videos from the scene on social media showed otherwise. The SHO said that an investigation is on and that they are interrogating Yakub. He refused to divulge further details. 

Every time such an incident happens, we never hear from authorities on what motivated the perpetrators to carry out such a heinous deed. Which mosque did he attend, which Jamaat was he a part of, which cleric did he follow on social media, what books did he read, which political party he supports? Media is least bothered to do any follow-ups, unlike in cases like Sulli Bai or Lakhimpur Kheri where articles keep appearing for months on end, and the entire life history of those involved is dug up.

Unless we discuss and identify the organisations and players who are seeding such hate among the ‘minority’ communities, all our development agenda and other achievements will go to waste because ultimately the social fabric will completely tear down and we are headed for civil war. What is the point of only defending borders when our Dharma and way of life in the very heart of the country is under threat?

The news comes in the wake of a wave of Islamist violence against Ram Navami processions and celebrations from five states in Bharat. Hindus witnessed stone pelting, arson, and violence across Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Karnataka. In Khambat, Gujarat, it has emerged that local maulvis (Muslim clerics) were involved in organising the violence and they had even roped in people from outside town.

UP has re-elected Yogi Adityanath, and incidentally, the state reported not a single incident of Islamist mob violence during the Ram Navami celebrations. Assembly elections in Gujarat (Dec 2022), Madhya Pradesh (Jan 2023), and Karnataka (May 2023) are up next. Congress is on the verge of becoming irrelevant. We hope that Hindus do understand what is happening and why.      

Local police officers surrounded Yakub to protect him, which reminded us of the Palghar Sadhus. Unlike Yakub, those Hindu Sadhus and their driver had not indulged in any violence or crime, yet they were lynched to death in Palghar, Maharashtra. Sadhus Mahant Kalpavruksha Giri (70) and Sushilgiri Maharaj (35) and their driver Nilesh Telgade (30) are yet to receive justice. 

That incident happened on April 17, 2020, and the administration transferred a few police officers and suspended some. Investigations had revealed the suspected hand of communist Naxals supported by Christian missionaries. CPM and NCP leaders spotted at the crime scene were not even questioned. 

Last heard, Maharashtra police are yet to find not one or two but 52 suspects in that case. Yet the Mumbai High Court granted bail to many accused in jail after finding that the killers were not ‘overtly violent!’

Islamists like Yakub believe that Hindu deities are a ‘disgrace and an insult to Allah’. They do not care about Hindu beliefs and customs or that of any other religious denomination, but the hate for polytheists and what their scriptures call ‘idol worshippers’ is especially intense. How long Hindus will remain silent remains to be seen.  

A few days back, a radicalised Sikh youth had placed his slippers over an image of Maa Parvati-Bhagwan Shiv during a langar organised by Hindus in Gurdaspur on the auspicious occasion of Ashtami. There too, Hindus caught hold of the perpetrator and waited for police to arrive.

While Hindus continue showing exemplary restraint in the face of grave provocation, yet they are labelled ‘extremist’ and ‘intolerant’ by so-called left-liberal-seculars and the English-language media. Now, imagine if people had taken law into their hands and lynched these perpetrators, as often happens when blasphemy is alleged by ‘minorities’. Then, this would have become front-page news, and Western media too would have jumped in to demonize and shame the entire Hindu community.

It is high time the Indian state sheds this delusional idea of secularism, which is nothing but minoritarianism in disguise, and acts like the civilizational state that our EAM correctly states we actually are. It is the duty of the state to preserve and protect the civilizational core, i.e. Dharma and all the diverse religious, spiritual and philosophical paths that have emanated from it. If it fails to do so, then we are headed for complete anarchy as Hindus grow increasingly frustrated.