Congress politician downplays Mumbai terror attack, misrepresents perpetrators as Hindus
Maharashtra, India 
3 May, 2024
Case Summary
Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar, the leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra assembly, made a controversial claim that the bullet that killed IPS officer Hemant Karkare during the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack was not fired by Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, from the weapon of an 'RSS-linked' police officer. He criticised former senior public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam accusing him of suppressing this information, labelling him a traitor. Nikam strongly refuted these accusations, expressing dismay at the level of electoral politics involved. He emphasised Kasab's guilt, citing Pakistan's acknowledgement of his involvement in the attack.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the hate tracker as a religiously motivated hate crime under the prime category- Hate speech against Hindus. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Denial or mocking of genocide/large-scale persecution. Denial or mocking of genocide/large-scale persecution/ethnic cleansing refers to the act of denying or minimizing the fact of the ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus. This often involves denying the scale, mechanisms, religious intent, or even the occurrence of the ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus. Hate speech of this kind involves the dissemination of falsehoods that deny or distort established historical facts or mock the suffering of Hindus by saying that they deserved the persecution, motivated by Hinduphobia. Denying such atrocities is not only about the denial of facts or rewriting/revising history, but it also delegitimises the religiously motivated persecution of Hindus, the religious hate/motivation/animosity that led to the persecution, and dehumanises Hindus as a religious group. Such denial of ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus not only denies the suffering but also paves the way for future/present atrocities and hate speech, inciting prejudice and violence against Hindus. It also provides a justification for violence by delinking religious animosity from religiously motivated crimes committed against Hindus. Since such denial and/or mocking of genocide/ethnic cleansing/atrocities motivated by religious animosity leads to present and future ramifications of creating more hate speech, violence, dehumanisation and delegitimisation, it would be considered hate speech under this category. The 26/11 was a terrorist attack in several places in Mumbai. The attack was carried out by the Islamic terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba, whose explicit aim is to eradicate ‘non-believers’ and establish an Islamic caliphate. There is, therefore, no scope for doubt that the terror attack was driven by Islamic supremacy and specifically against non-Muslim victims, specifically Hindus, driven by religious hate and animosity, given that Pakistan and its terror groups view India as a ‘Hindu land’ which must be turned Islamic. Further, the religious motivations were evidenced by the fact that Islamic terrorist Ajmal Kasab, wore a kalava (a sacred thread worn by Hindus) to falsely implicate Hindus for the terror attack. Further, there are testimonies revealing that the terrorists specifically targeted non-Muslims, particularly Hindus during the Mumbai terror attack. One of the testimonies narrates that the terrorists asked the hostages to recite the Islamic prayer – those who could not – were immediately murdered by the Islamic terrorists. Despite this, Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar's rhetoric blaming the RSS for the attacks serves to deny or downplay the large-scale violence carried out against Hindus, shield the Islamic terrorists and brand the victims of the religiously motivated hate crime – Hindus – as the perpetrators. Denial of religiously motivated persecution serves to re-victimise the victims of the crime and also, facilitates the further victimisation of the victim group by providing a shield to the perpetrators of the hate crime. The denial or distortion of such large-scale persecution is often done to fuel further hatred, dehumanization, or violence against the group that was targeted in the hate crime. Since the motivations of the denial of religiously motivated persecution also fuel further hate crimes against the victim group, this speech is classified as hate speech.
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Others
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
