Is incendiary rhetoric of leaders stirring up Hindu radicalisation?

It may be an electoral strategy but it was followed by 3 firing incidents and may light fires that are hard to contain

An unidentified teenager brandishing a gun during a protest on Jan 30 against a new citizenship law outside the Jamia Millia Islamia university in New Delhi, India.
An unidentified teenager brandishing a gun during a protest on Jan 30 against a new citizenship law outside the Jamia Millia Islamia university in New Delhi, India. PHOTO: REUTERS
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An armed man arrives at the scene of the attack. He live-streams videos of himself walking around on Facebook and posts messages that glorify his worldview before firing a shot. Many would associate this dark sequence of events with the Christchurch mosque attacks last March that left 51 dead.

But this series of events played out in Delhi on Jan 30 and the shot was fired by a 17-year-old Hindu at a crowd protesting a law which expedites citizenship for persecuted non-Muslims from Bangla-desh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The shooter, who cannot be named because he is a minor under Indian law, was apprehended by the police and is under protective custody.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 19, 2020, with the headline Is incendiary rhetoric of leaders stirring up Hindu radicalisation?. Subscribe