Desecration of a prominent Hindu mandir in Australia by Khalistani extremists has shocked Hindus across the world. Today morning, devotees woke to see the walls of BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir in Melbourne’s northern suburb of Mill Park defaced with anti-Bharat and pro-Khalistan slogans.

The slogans scrawled on the gate and walls of the temple include – “Hindustan Murdabad” (Death to Hindustan/Bharat), “Modi Hitler”, and “Sant Bhindranwale Martyr” – the last slogan glorifying the Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale who is responsible for the death of thousands of innocent Hindus and Sikhs and whose seditious movement led to desecration of the holy Golden Temple, assassination of PM Indira Gandhi, and plunged Punjab into a dark period for over 20 years.

A hurt and shocked BAPS devotee told The Australia Today, “I am angry, scared and dismayed by the blatant display of religious hatred towards the peaceful Hindu community by Khalistan supporters.”

BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir released a statement that said, “We are deeply saddened and shocked by these acts of vandalism and hate. BAPS has always been committed to peaceful coexistence and dialogue with all faiths and peoples. We have apprised the authorities and are cooperating fully with them. We offer our prayers for peace and harmony and will provide a fuller statement in due course.”

VHP Australia issued a strong condemnation of this anti-Hindu hate crime, calling out the similar desecration and vandalization of a BAPS mandir in Toronto, Canada in September of last year by Khalistanis. They called upon the Australian government to act against such Hinduphobia and ban Khalistani groups operating in Australia.

Other Hindu groups also issued condemnations.

Hindu Council of Australia’s Victoria state President Makrand Bhagwat told The Australia Today, “Any kind of hatred and vandalism against places of worship is not acceptable and we condemn it. And this kind of activity is in violation of the racial and religious tolerance act of Victoria. We demand Victoria Police and Premier Dan Andrews to take strong action against the perpetrators. We will definitely raise this matter with the Victorian Multicultural Commission and the Multicultural Minister of Victoria because the death threat to Hindus is a very serious matter as the community is in fear of these Khalistan supporters”.

Australian politicians like Evan Mulholland, Liberal MP for the Northern Metropolitan Region, expressed distress over the vandalism. Lily D’Ambrosio, Member for Mill Park and Minister in the Victorian government, said “there is no place in our community for such attacks”.

Khalistani goons also recorded a video of their despicable act and are posting it on social media as proof of their ‘bravery’, reports The Australia Today.

Hindu groups in other nations also condemned this hate crime. CoHNA (Coalition of Hindus of North America) tweeted, “This is horrific. How can #Hindus have the freedom of religion to practice their faith, when #HinduTemples face attacks with distressing regularity across the globe and anti-Hindu hate is downplayed. Australian authorities need to take action. #Hinduphobia“

Rising tide of Hinduphobia in the West

Several other Hindu temples have been desecrated and/or vandalized & robbed in USA, UK, Canada and other parts of the Anglosphere in recent times.

-In February 2022, 6 Hindu temples were vandalized or burgled in Toronto within a span of just 10 days.

-In August 2022, a Gandhi statue placed outside a Hindu temple in New York, USA was vandalized.

-In September 2021, a Hindu temple in Swindon, UK was desecrated and burgled for the fifth time.

-In October 2022, a Kali Mata mandir was desecrated and robbed in Trinidad, while Bible verses were scrawled on its walls.

-In 2019, a BAPS Swaminarayan Temple in Louisville, Kentucky, USA was desecrated by Christian supremacists who sprayed crosses and black paint on the deity, wrote graffiti like ‘Jesus is the only Lord’, and left a knife stabbed into a chair in the main hall.

-In 2018, the Bhartiya Mandir at Regents Park in Sydney, Australia established by the Fiji Hindu community was set on fire and all murtis and icons were smashed while local Hindus were celebrating the 9-day long Navratri festival.

There have been other Hinduphobic attacks too such as the hateful verbal tirade directed at a Hindu man by a Khalistani male at a Taco Bell in California, the racist taunting of Hindu women by a Mexican-American woman in Texas, last year’s repeated attacks on Hindus and their religious places in Leicestershire and other parts of UK by Islamists, and several attacks on Hindu diaspora by Khalistanis during the 2021 anti-farm laws protests. Online Hinduphobia and anti-Hindu disinformation in the West has anyway reached dangerous levels as a detailed Rutgers University study showed.

It is evident that Hinduphobia, in both virtual and physical worlds, has increased alarmingly in the West in recent years. This Hindu-hate is driven by anti-Hindu religious fanatics (a coalition of evangelicals, Islamists and Khalistanis) and supported, tacitly or otherwise, by influential sections of Western academia, media and political parties.

With this background and in light of Western governments’ reluctance to acknowledge and tackle the rising tide of anti-Hindu hate crimes, it remains to be seen whether any meaningful action will be taken in today’s case from Melbourne. Khalistani groups have been operating with impunity in Australia and other Western nations for many years now. The West needs to act now against these anti-Hindu elements operating from its soil, if it is serious about pursuing a real partnership with Bharat.