Chandan, Narang, Kamlesh and now Rinku– Can someone address the elephant in the room please?

Yet another Hindu man has been killed, purely for being Hindu. For being a patriot and a nationalist. For being a proponent of Sanatan Dharma. Rinku Sharma, Bajrang Dal activist was on Thursday murdered by an Islamist mob and stabbed in the back for merely chanting the slogan – Jai Shree Ram and being involved in a donation drive carried out by his organisation to shore up funds for the grand Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. Rinku Sharma was murdered right outside his house and in front of his family, after he got into an argument with Islamists at a birthday party regarding the fund collection for the Ram Mandir.

Rinku Sharma comes as yet another name in the list of Hindus persecuted and killed in cold blood for merely being Hindus. So many have been killed by jihadis already, and Rinku Sharma was most certainly not the last. But while some complained about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘inaction’, the left has mostly kept mum, and there is also a section that invoked the statement of Delhi Police which out of habit said that there was no communal angle in the case, disregarding the testimonies of the bereaved family of Rinku Sharma. Meanwhile, mainstream media has tried to downplay the nature of the crime, which has disturbed Hindu readers. Above that, some internet users have tried to justify the killing inviting severe backlash from Hindus. But few have dared to explicitly address the elephant in the room– The Jihadist mentality of the radicalised section of the Muslim community, and its intolerance towards practitioners of Hinduism. This must be addressed.

Kamlesh Tiwari was hacked multiple in his house in Lucknow 15 times, before being shot in the head. His fault? He, in 2015, had “made fun” of Prophet Mohammad, for which the then state government had booked him under the stringent National Security Act. Of course, another fault on the late Tiwari’s part was that he was a Hindu, and a former member of the Hindu Mahasabha, and then, founder of the Hindu Samaj Party. This was reason enough for his life to be taken away by Islamists.

Chandan Gupta was shot by Islamists in 2018 because he participated in a Tiranga rally organised by the VHP and ABVP. The said rally, in Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj, had come under the severe attack of Islamists who pelted stones at it out of sheer hatred for Hindus and India. This led to clashes, and the death of Chandan Gupta, a 22-year-old proud Hindu youth.

Dr. Pankaj Narang, before suffering a cardiac arrest and dying following a brutal attack by Islamists in Delhi’s Vikaspuri in 2016, had an argument with two bike-borne assailants. The argument soon led to Narang’s house being pelted with stones, and the Doctor himself being murdered. Dr. Narang suffered multiple fractures, internal and external bleedings. His fault? He too, like all others, was a Hindu.

Now, it is Rinku Sharma, mob-lynched and stabbed in the back. There are countless other such victims. The murderers, however? Calling the murderers ‘Islamists’ is very easy. What, as a society, and as a nation, however, are we doing to counter their toxic, theological and murderous ideology? That very ideology – the idea of waging jihad against ‘kaafirs’ is behind all such murders, lynchings, rapes and other criminalities. Worse even, the victimhood narrative painted around the Muslim community, despite it being the second-largest majority in the country, and despite the special treatment it receives from the current dispensation in terms of education scholarships and more. The left-dominated media has always portrayed Hindus as the aggressors and whitewashed communal killings at the hands of members of the Muslim community. This has further emboldened Jihadists. What are we doing about it?