Hindu religious sentiments hurt by remarks mocking Lord Ram and His mother by Muslim politician in Nanded, Maharashtra
Nanded, Maharashtra, India 
7 December, 2011
Case Summary
On 8 December 2011, during an election rally in Nanded, Maharashtra, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Akbaruddin Owaisi made derogatory remarks concerning Bhagwan Shri Ram and Mata Kaushalya. While discussing the Ram Janmabhoomi issue and Bhagwan Ram’s birthplace, Owaisi referred to three temples in Ayodhya that stated Ram was born on their premises. He also referred to Kaushalyapuram in Haryana, noted as the ancestral origin of Ram’s mother and King Dashratha’s wife, Mata Kaushalya. Owaisi then asked where Kaushalya had gone to give birth to Ram and where Ram was born. A criminal complaint was subsequently registered against the politician for deliberately and maliciously insulting the Hindu religion and outraging religious feelings. Owaisi later moved the Bombay High Court to get the criminal charges dropped, arguing that his comments were harmless and that his right to free speech protected his public statements. The Bombay High Court firmly rejected his plea to dismiss the case. The court observed that Owaisi’s disparaging remarks against Bhagwan Ram and his mother were not casual or accidental slips of the tongue, but were planned, predetermined, and measured attacks meant to mock the Hindu faith. The court held that an elected public leader had a duty not to hurt religious beliefs, ruling that free speech did not give anyone the freedom to carry out intentional, hostile attacks against another community's faith.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Hate Speech against Hindus. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This incident qualified as a religiously motivated hate crime because the speech intentionally targeted sacred Hindu beliefs to demean the entire community. Instead of discussing political or legal matters responsibly, the speaker used a public stage to insult what Hindu devotees hold sacred. When someone in authority uses a public gathering to mock a religion's traditions, it ceases to be ordinary politics and becomes hate speech. The goal was to generate hostility and make the audience look down on the Hindu faith. Within the Hindu tradition, Bhagwan Ram represents the embodiment of righteousness and holds supreme spiritual sanctity for millions of devotees worldwide. Questioning and ridiculing the birth of a deity and speaking disrespectfully of His mother attacked the very heart of Hindu religious feeling. These sacred figures were singled out precisely because of their holy status in Hinduism, with the specific purpose of offending and hurting Hindu worshippers. The planned nature of the remarks proved that this was a deliberate act of hostility rather than an accidental mistake. The speaker chose to introduce ridicule into a public address to entertain a crowd at the expense of another religious group. By turning deeply cherished religious figures into objects of public amusement, the speaker sought to demean Hindu traditions and assert a sense of religious superiority over the community. In the wider social context, this incident reflected a troubling pattern where radical figures publicly mock Hindu deities to polarise communities and rally political support. Insulting Hindu gods, beliefs, and practices has often been used to humiliate Hindus and show open contempt for their faith. Because the remarks were designed to insult sacred Hindu figures without any legitimate purpose, the event met all the conditions of faith-based hate speech. This is not the first time Akbaruddin Owaisi has made derogatory remarks against the Hindu community, but rather part of a sustained pattern of anti-Hindu hostility. In a notorious 2012 address, Owaisi threatened the entire community by stating that if the police were removed for 15 minutes, 25 crore Muslims would show 100 crore Hindus who held real power. This rhetoric continued to inspire hostility years later; during the November 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections in Nanded, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) politician Syed Moin reiterated and endorsed Owaisi’s "15 minutes" speech to intimidate local Hindus. Moin, alongside other party leaders, had also organised rallies in September 2024 echoing violent "Sar Tan Se Juda" calls to incite crowds against Hindus. These repeated instances demonstrated an established pattern within Owaisi’s political circle of weaponising public platforms to insult Hindu beliefs and issue direct communal threats.
Case Status
Case sub-judice
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
