New Delhi: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court against calls for social and economic boycott of Muslims following the communal clashes that occurred in Haryana’s Nuh.
“There is a very serious thing that happened in Gurgaon. There is a call that if you employ these people in shops, then you all will be gaddars (traitors),” senior advocate Kapil Sibal told CJI D.Y. Chandrachud when the Constitution Bench hearing pleas challenging Article 370 was breaking for lunch.
Sibal mentioned the matter and sought urgent listing of the interlocutory application.
The plea said that more than 27 rallies have been organised across various States where blatant hate speeches calling for the “killing and social & economic boycott of Muslims” have been openly delivered.
The application referred to a video where a procession by the Samhast Hindu Samaj can be seen walking through a neighbourhood in Haryana’s Hisar in the “presence of Police officials issuing warnings to residents and shopkeepers that if they continue to employ or keep any Muslims after 2 days then their shops will be boycotted”.
It referred to other “open calls for violence and boycott of Muslims” given by VHP leader Kapil Swami in the presence of police officials in Madhya Pradesh’s Saugor on August 8.
“Such rallies that demonise communities and openly call for violence and killing of people will inevitably lead to communal disharmony and violence of an unfathomable scale across the country,” the application said.
Last week, a special bench of the Supreme Court ordered police authorities of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to ensure that no hate speech is given against any community or violence or damage to property takes place during the protest rallies being planned by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) in the national capital region.
In April this year, the top court had stressed that the Constitution envisages India as a secular nation, while directing all states and Union Territories to take strict action on hate speech cases, and registering criminal cases irrespective of religion against culprits without waiting for a complaint to be filed.
Communal clashes broke out in Haryana’s Nuh in Mewat after a religious procession heading to a place of worship was allegedly attacked on July 31. The violence spread to Gurugram and some districts of Haryana adjoining Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on August 7 put a hold on the demolition drive in Nuh after the district administration had razed some of the buildings, including a three-storey hotel and a few medical shops, as part of its action against ‘illegal constructions’.
(IANS)
