In the aftermath of the massive police crackdown at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar protest on July 20, which left hundreds of protesters injured and hospitalised, Hindu Raksha Dal chief Pinky Chaudhary, along with other Hindutva influencers, posted a stream of videos urging Right-wing supporters to gather in Delhi and take violent action against the protesters. Some of these posts have view in millions, some others in hundreds of thousands.
Even as the police brutality drew sharp criticism from across the country and beyond, these videos, posted between July 21 and 26, portrayed the student protesters as “enemies of the nation and Hinduism”. They attempted to justify the violence against the participants of the student movement by labelling them as ‘anti-national’, ‘anti-Hindu’ or associating with terrorism. Several videos even called on followers of Sanatan Dharma to “set them straight” and “beat them black and blue.”
In his series of videos, Pinki Chaudhary alias Bhupendra Chaudhary, repeatedly asserted that the outfit’s members and ‘Sanatani warriors’ had a duty to “set these anti-national protesters right”. He invoked the Hindi expression “unke pichwade laal karne ka”, an idiom that means to thrash or beat someone severely.
‘Wake Up Today Or No one Will Save You Tomorrow’
In his first video, uploaded on July 22, Chaudhary alleged that “students and all the anti-national forces had gathered at Jantar Mantar to exploit young people and damage India’s reputation” while claiming that “this country belongs to followers of Sanatan dharma”. This video garnered 331,000 views.
He further drew parallels between the current students’ uprising and the protests that allegedly led to the partition of India. “If you still fail to recognise their mentality today, tomorrow you may not even be in a position to recognise it, because all the Hindus protesting at Jantar Mantar, I want to tell them that a similar protest took place during the partition of the country. At that time, it was only Hindus who were massacred. The same kind of people who are at Jantar Mantar now added fuel to the fire then,” he said.
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Vilifying Muslims, he said, “If you do not wake up today, tomorrow there will be no one left to save you. I want to ask those Hindus who support Chandrashekhar Ravan: during partition, you sided with Muslims and participated in the division of the country, yet even then you could not save yourselves from Muslims. You got your own people massacred by Muslims…even today, you stand with those who abuse Lord Ram and insult Mother Sita.”
He discredited the movement by claiming that alleged slogans calling for the killing of Prime Minister Modi indicated the protesters were not genuine students. “What kind of student movement focuses on killing Modi? This shows the mindset of anti-national forces at work.” He then threatened to take action against the protesters, asserting that Hindutva warriors should ensure they face consequences. “Today, they should be dealt with forcefully,” he urged.
‘Everyone At Jantar Mantar Is Against Sanatan’
On July 23, Chaudhary uploaded a video with other members of the Hindu Raksha Dal. “Everyone gathered at Jantar Mantar today is against Sanatan Dharma. They were looking for some issue through which they could attack India and defame our country before the world.”
Chaudhary alleged that women at the protest were spreading obscenity and used offensive language, which he deemed “unacceptable.” He also accused the protesters of abusing and disrespecting Hindu deities. He again urged HRD members and other ‘religious warriors’ to gather at Jantar Mantar on July 16 at noon, to “set the protesters straight.”
“Today, I want to say one thing to all the religious warriors of this country and to the warriors of HRD: the time has come to deal with them, to give them a crushing response…On the 26th, at 12 noon, we will reach Jantar Mantar. We will not let the morale of our police be broken, nor the morale of our armed forces…We will return beating them black and blue; otherwise, we will not return home.” This video amassed 1.6 million views.
A member of the Hindu Raksha Dal, Vipin Rajput, shared a video of the same gathering on his Instagram, where multiple members of the group, including Chaudhary and Shivam Rajput, issued threats of reaching Jantar Mantar on July 26 and beating the protesters.
Using several expletives in the video, one of the members, covering his face with a scarf, abused the protesters and declared, “HRD is coming to Jantar Mantar on July 26, Sunday. Now we’ll see how much strength [protesters] really have. We will see how you hit us with sticks, and you watch how we hit you with sticks. We will set your minds straight so thoroughly…that you will remember it for the rest of your lives. You will never forget what a protest is.”
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‘Jihadist Activities, Communist Ideologies’
On July 24, Chaudhary posted excerpts from an interview with a local media outlet. Upon being asked whether the presence of HRD members could lead to a confrontation, he said, “There should be a confrontation…only then will they be set straight. Otherwise, they have crossed every limit.”
He alleged that the protesters were “engaged in ‘jihadist’ activities and follow a communist ideology.” He accused them of raising ‘anti-India’ slogans like “Bharat there tukde honge” (India, you will be broken into pieces) and insulting Ram. “HRD alone is sufficient to put an end to this and HRD will go there with its full strength.”
Asked whether police would permit them to proceed, Chaudhary claimed the police “are currently on the back foot” and expressed concern over its implications if the police continue to be this way. “Out of concern for this country, Hindutva warriors will unite and go to Jantar Mantar,” he said. This video was viewed 45,000 times.
Later the same day, Chaudhary uploaded another video similarly questioning the demonstrators’ legitimacy as students. Those who allegedly insult Hindu religious figures, criticise the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government or raise particular religious slogans, and support certain political causes, “should not be considered students”. In this video as well, he urged HRD members to confront the protesters by repeatedly threatening to “give them a crushing response” and “beat them black and blue” on July 26. This video received 548,000 views.
‘Crossed Limits Of Obscenity’
On July 25, the day former Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned, Chaudhary released another video reiterating similar threats. Claiming that Jantar Mantar became “a place of debauchery”, he asserted that HRD will not back down even if, in his view, the government has done so.
Further, after issuing threats to physically assault students, he said this “confrontation” is to defend India’s culture and values. “The way they are creating chaos at Jantar Mantar and the extent to which they have crossed the limits of obscenity has damaged India’s image before the whole world. We will set such people straight, whatever the consequences. But we will ensure that India remains a country with values and culture,” he said. This video got 40,000 views.
‘Let Sanatanis Be Police For A Day’
In the same vein as Chaudhary, a ‘Sanatani influencer’, Swatantra Bharadwaj, with 136,000 followers on Instagram, uploaded a series of videos urging the police administration to allow staunch Hindutva elements inside the police team for a day and let them “wreak havoc” on the protesters.
On July 21, Bharadwaj uploaded a reel displaying a fibre baton resembling those used by the police during the lathi-charge on July 20. The video, which garnered 486,000 views, was captioned: “Give me a chance to lathi-charge”.
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The following day, Bharadwaj posted another video standing in front of a damaged Delhi police van while holding a fibre baton. “To all my Sanatani brothers, those you were calling students turned out to be terrorists. Rather than students, many terrorists came from Seelampur, Maujpur, Babarpur, and Jafrabad to vandalise this Delhi Police vehicle here,” he said in the video, which garnered 2.2 million views.
“We have just one demand from the Delhi administration: that, just for one day, staunch Sanatanis like us be recruited into the Delhi Police. No need for civil police, or police in uniform, when staunch Sanatanis like us have arrived here…Without civil clothes, without any uniform, if we don’t set them straight with batons, my name would not be Swatantra Bhardwaj,” he asserted.
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In another reel posted on the same day, Bharadwaj defended the men in civilian clothes seen assaulting protesters, asserting that they were real police officers and not “goons”. He simultaneously warned that “the real goons have just arrived” in the video, which amassed 7.3 million views, and claimed that the Sanatani supporters are roaming all across Delhi conducting surveillance. He urged “gaurakshaks and Sanatani supporters” to stay alert.
At the time of this report being published, the reel is not available on Instagram. It is not clear whether the uploader removed it or the platform.
In yet another reel posted on the same day, Bharadwaj identified several police officers in civilian clothing, who were seen violently beating protesters at Jantar Mantar. He expressed support for the police, stating, “They have done nothing wrong. They lathi-charged the terrorists disrupting our country. What if they were in civilian dress? They haven’t harmed any students. It’s the terrorists who got beaten.”
He further claimed that if the police had official permission to act more aggressively, “people wouldn’t be alive”, and urged the police not to intervene in future protests, claiming that Sanatanis like him would handle the situation instead.
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On July 26, Bharadwaj uploaded another reel, showing several individuals physically assaulting a man while he encouraged the attack. “Hit them, these are all cockroaches. They wanted ‘Brahmanwad se azadi’, hit them and give them that freedom,” he said. Another person in the video can be heard saying, “This is what azadi is from Brahmanwad and RSS”. This video was viewed 339,000 times.
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In another video posted on June 10, Bharadwaj can be seen slapping a man who is making a joke on PM Modi with the caption, “One more cockroach was killed”.
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Bharadwaj also posted an image with Union minister Chirag Paswan on July 1.
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Alt News has flagged the content of these videos to Meta, citing violations of the platform’s Violence and Incitement Policy as these videos explicitly call for and threaten physical harm and intimidation against students. The sustained amplification of such videos could potentially lead to real-life acts of violence, given the substantial reach each video garnered, thus raising concerns over the role of social media platforms in regulating hateful and inciting content, especially during a time of crisis. This story will be updated as and when we get a response from Meta.
This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.