Court seeks report from police over Sudarshan TV editor’s hate speech at Delhi event

A Delhi court has sought an action taken report from the Delhi police over a plea filed against Sudarshan TV editor-in-chief Suresh Chavhanke for his alleged hate speech at an event in the national capital, Indian Express reported.

The application speaks about an event organised by the Hindu Yuva Vahini at Govindpuri Metro station on December 19, 2021, in which Chavhanke was allegedly seen administering an oath to a group of people to “die for and kill” to make India a “Hindu Rashtra”.

The petition was filed by Dr SQR Illiyas, president of the Welfare Party of India and father of activist Umar Khalid, who is in judicial custody under a UAPA case regarding the northeast Delhi riots. It sought an FIR against Chavhanke for “giving speeches and making statements that are communal, divisive, incendiary and amount to hate speeches, with the knowledge that such incendiary remarks would have the propensity to stoke tensions inter se persons belonging to certain communities, and also would directly instigate violence”.

It further stated that the Sudarshan TV chief’s statement was a “clear threat to use force and violence against the minorities in order to make India a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation)” and that after the event, he was also seen popularising a hashtag which said “ek hi sapna hindu rashtra” which translates into “one dream, Hindu nation”.

Such tweets, the application said, were a “direct assault on the core values of the Constitution of this country, of secularism, equality and fraternity and intents to create enmity in the name of religion”.

Several videos which showed Chavhanke at the event were circulated on social media. In the videos, he could be heard saying that “in order to make this country a Hindu nation and to keep it a Hindu nation, and to move forward, we will fight, die and kill, if required”.

According to the application, no preliminary inquiry was required in the case as the “inflammatory, communal, and hate speeches” were made during public events and videos of the same were also in public domain. It said that action should be taken against Chavhanke to not only hold him responsible for the inflammatory statements, but to prevent any act of incidents of violence.

The matter has been posted for further hearing on March 15.

This is not the first time that Sudarshan has waded into controversy with its programming. In 2020, it proposed a conspiracy called “UPSC jihad” by which Muslims were purportedly “infiltrating” the civil services for nefarious purposes. Even the Supreme Court called the show “insidious” and a great “disservice to the nation”.