German state-owned public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), the name of which translates as ‘German Wave’ in English, is again peddling lies against India. In January it released a documentary on alleged hate-mongering ‘Hindutva pop’ songs on its YouTube channel. And yesterday (April 8) they released a video supporting cow smugglers and butcherers named ‘India’s vegetarian Nationalism’ targeting meat eaters, especially the Islamists who run butcher shops.
Well, illegal cow smuggling and slaughtering is a criminal offence in India. There are dedicated laws to curb illegal smugglers but the German news channel chose to support the butchers and smugglers targeting ‘Gau Rakashaks’ and showing them in a bad light.
The organisation has done this in the past when they released a documentary on ‘Hindutva Pop’ songs by calling them “anti-Muslim hate music”.
DW journalist Adil Bhat, did a ground report in Haryana, Delhi and nearby areas to conclude that under the Modi regime, the Muslims in India live in fear. He met a butcher shop owner Mohammad Idris who lives in Haryana and was allegedly forced by the administration to keep his shop closed during the Navaratri festival.
The report quotes, “In the last few years, he, like other butchers in Haryana, has had to close their shops on Hindu festivals and every Tuesday, an auspicious day for Hindus. Failure to do so could lead to a fine and the cancellation of their business license, as well as threats from Hindu nationalist Mobs”.
“I have shut my shop because of fear of the mob. They come with sticks and beat butchers as they like. Even if we report to the police, we know there is no one to hear us,” Idris told DW.
The report says, Idris’s son-in-law, Yusuf Qureshi, who is also a butcher, was attacked by a group of cow vigilantes (cows are considered sacred in Hinduism) while he was transporting meat to a dog farm in the Maruthi Kunj area of Haryana. The vigilantes beat him and broke his right hand.
“Since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014, measures targeting meat consumption have increased in parts of the country, especially in northern India. Hindu extremist groups like Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, and Hindu Sena have been at the forefront of “vegetarian nationalism”,” quotes the report.
In this 1-minute 57 seconds video, the DW journalist meets ‘Gau Rakshaks’ from Haryana. One of the Gau Rakshak, whom they call Cow Vigilante was Deepak Arya.
The journalist accompanied Deepak on one of his patrolling and quoted him saying, “It’s the Muslim Community who sell and eat cows and so their main target is to “catch them red handed”,”.
“Muslims are the ones who kill and eat our cows and hurt the sentiments of Hindus. To stop cow slaughter, we are ready to give our life and also take the lives of these people. We will not stop in this mission,” Arya told DW.
In this video, the Hindu activists can be seen raising slogans like ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Gau Mata ki Jai’.
"Vegetarian nationalism" in India is causing a spike in cow-related violence, with Hindu vigilantes attacking Muslim butchers and cattle transporters: pic.twitter.com/F7IlpbwYTt
— DW News (@dwnews) April 8, 2023
The report further quotes, Ghazala Wahab, an author who writes on security and Islam. She sees cow vigilantism as part of a wider campaign against India’s Muslim minority which punishes and marginalizes them economically.
“What has happened in the last few years is that the government found a lucrative way of othering the minority communities, creating some sort of hate campaign against them and encouraging the vigilante groups. All of this has created a sort of pervasive fear in the country,” she told DW.
Vishnu Gupta, the national president of the Hindu Sena was quoted in the video saying, “Muslims have to respect the sentiments of the Hindu majority and stop selling meat during the festivals and holy days. They will have to pay a heavy price if they do not adhere to this”.
Notably, the state of Haryana has a dedicated law to curb cow smuggling, as the Manohar Lal Khattar-led Haryana government, within a year of assuming office, passed the HGSG Act in November 2015 to stop cow slaughter and smuggling and ensure the welfare of cattle in the state. Under clauses of the Act, cow trafficking, slaughtering and possessing or consuming beef were prohibited.
This report by DW is not different from the one on Hindutva Pop, both of them target the idea of Hindutva and Hindus in general. In the Hindutva Pop video, the DW journalist called singers and speakers at events and religious gatherings as Hate mongers.
For the Hindutva Pop documentary, the DW journalist, Akanksha Saxena, met the singers, and took bytes from a journalist and a controversial commentator named Apoorvanand Jha, for the report. Throughout, she refers to these singers as “hate mongers” and a part of “divisive Hindutva politics”, and comments that these songs are widening the Hindu-Muslim divide in Indian society.
Watch the documentary here:
And here these Hindu activists are shown as goons who attack the unarmed minority community for mere smuggling and slaughtering cows.
This Anti-Cow Smuggling mission is fully supported by the police and administration, especially in northern India, says the documentary. It concludes, butchers like Idris have no option but to live in fear and shut their shops even if it means a month of loss for them.
Read the report by DW on India’s ‘vegetarian nationalism’ here.
Notably, the DW will never show the beheading calls made or the stones pelted on Hindu religious processions by Muslims and it does not suit their propaganda.
This month, Organiser Weekly compiled a list of songs played at Islamic religious processions such as Tazia and other religious gatherings.
Songs playing at Islamic processions calls for beheading of Kafirs like ‘Topi ko Jo lalkarega use kaat ke rakh denge..’
Apart from these songs, there are hundreds of compilation videos of dialogues and statements against Hindus. One such video can be seen here threatening the then Gujrat Chief Minister and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi as ‘Tu kya hume mitayega Gujrat Katil, chhati pe chhadh ke bolenge Islam Zindabaad’.
Even after playing such provocative songs, no attacks have been ever made on these processions. There has been no stone-pelting against such remarks and provocative songs by Hindus. All the religious sentiments are ignited once a Hindu procession crossed a Mosque.
Readers can find a detailed report on these songs here:
Apart from these, there are articles supporting Interfaith marriages in India and calling phenomena like ‘Love–Jihad’ baseless. There is a separate article on how oppressed the minority community is in India, as they face discrimination while hunting for residential spaces and in day-to-day life.
The German state-owned, DW is full of anti-Hindu content, ironically all of them are being reported by their correspondents living in India only.
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