#HaridwarHateAssembly: 76 advocates write to Chief Justice over 'genocide' calls

Amid widespread outrage over hate speeches at the Haridwar dharam sansad and lack of police action, 76 advocates of the Supreme Court have written to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, asking the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the calls for "ethnic cleansing".

The letter, signed by eminent lawyers, including Dushyant Dave, Prashant Bhushan and Vrinda Grover, Salman Khurshid, has given naming of people who had given open calls to kill Muslims of India.

The advocates have written that in absence of police action, "Urgent judicial intervention is required to prevent such events that seem to have become the order of the day".

Pointing to the religious conclaves in Haridwar and Delhi, the letter read: "The aforementioned events and the speeches delivered during the same are not mere hate speeches but amount to an open call for murder of an entire community".

The speeches, the letter continued, pose a "grave threat not just to the unity and integrity of our country but also endanger the lives of millions of Muslim citizens".

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Following outrage and condemnation on social media over the open calls for genocide and use of weapons against Muslims, a police case was filed four days after the Haridwar event, in which only one person was named. Two more names were later added - Dharm Das and one Sadhvi Annapurna. No one has been arrested so far.

The religious assembly, being referred to as Haridwar "Hate Assembly", sparked a row after videos of Hindu leaders, including Yati Narsinghanand, making provocative speeches and inciting violence against minority communities surfaced on social media.

The event, where bone-chilling calls to arms and violence were made was also attended by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, who was earlier arrested in a case of anti-Muslim slogans at Delhi's Jantar Mantar.

"We are writing to your Lordship hoping for prompt action in your capacity as the head of the judicial wing of the State and knowing your Lordship's commitment to both the independence of Judiciary as also the constitutional values that are fundamental to the functioning of a multicultural nation such as ours," the advocates have appealed.