Congress politician publishes derogatory post mocking devotees of Lord Ram
Karnataka, India 
12 January, 2024
Case Summary
A Facebook post by Sathya Prakash E, spokesperson for the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, went viral, featuring an AI-generated image mocking Ram Bhakts. The post depicted monkeys in a plane wearing saffron robes, captioned "Ram Bhakts off to Ayodhya." After facing severe backlash, Sathya deleted the post but did not apologise. The post drew criticism from Hindu devotees, with one user questioning Congress's stance on Hinduism. This incident comes amid Congress's refusal to attend the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha ceremony, accusing BJP of exploiting Lord Ram for political gain, despite Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi previously engaging in temple visits to court Hindu voters before elections.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the primary category 'hate speech against Hindus' under the sub-category '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. In this case, the politician published a post which mocked and dehumanised Hindu devotees. By depicting Hindu devotees as monkeys in a saffron robe, the politician belittled the faith of the devotees and also, dehumanised the devotees themselves. The subliminal messaging of such posts is that Hindu devotees are a group of animals who are mindlessly celebrating their faith. Such representations delegitimise the faith of Hindus and dehumanise the devotees, legitimising violence against them. For that reason, this case is being documented as one of religiously motivated hate speech.
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Others
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
