Video From Haryana Used to Create Communal Tensions

A recent video from Haryana was used to create Communal Tensions between the Hindus and Muslims of India. The video had some very disturbing footage where a few men were brutally attacking a man with sticks, rods, and pipes. The popular story that started circulating was that ‘Muslim men came to attack a Hindu man’. The video became popular on Twitter where everyone started retweeting and commenting on it. 

However, there is more to the story that the naked eye failed to see. Yes, the young man in the video did face the violence and atrocities. But seems like the backstory has nothing to do with religious differences.

The Video created Communal Tensions

The Jodhpur government decided to shut down the internet on the day this video became viral on the internet. What started out as a tweet, began to go around as Facebook posts and Instagram stories as well! It was the hottest WhatsApp forward message too. 

An account on Twitter uploaded the disturbing video and captioned it – ‘Is the internet in Jodhpur shut down today so that you can kill Hindus publicly?’ 

The owner of the post tagged The Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, along with other BJP leaders. This has created quite some ruckus between the religious groups. The Hindus misunderstood that the Muslim men were indeed spreading violence against the Hindu community.

Also Read: Why Is Indian PM Modi Silent About Attacks Against Muslims?

But there is more to the story of these fake communal tensions …

The Initial Assumptions

The majority of the online crowd believed what was written in the caption. Muslim trying to kill Hindu. There was no reason to not believe it because Jodhpur is a region where communal violence is common between the two groups. 

However, there is a part of the population that tried to dig deeper. And they have come up with the assumption that this video might have its origins in Bangladesh. They tried to emphasize that this video that broadcasted communal tensions may not be ours at all! 

The story started circulating that the Bangladeshi Muslims thrashed and hit the Hindu leader because he refused to attend their iftar party. The same started going viral on Twitter as well. This created quite some confusion among the newsreaders. That is when the authorities decided to step in and see what the real fuss was about.

What is the Real Tale?

When the concerned department started to investigate the truth behind the video, it came across some very shocking revelations. The video belonged to India and the people who were present in the video were also Indians. Unlike what everyone thought, the violence in the video had nothing to do with communal tensions or religious enmity. 

In fact, it is a personal feud between two young men – both of them are Hindus.

The man who endured the violence is Kamaljeet Singh. Mr Singh is a truck driver who hailed from Sultanpur. The incident took place in Yamunanagar Village of Haryana. Though the authorities initially couldn’t find much about the people in the video, they deciphered that it had nothing to do with religious differences.

Also Read: Islam in India: Then and Now!

Kamaljeet had personal feuds with two other people who hailed from the nearby place – Kanipla. Apparently, the fight was so serious that the other two men wanted to hurt and kill Mr Singh.

Kamaljeet Singh gave a statement to the police and explained what had happened on that day.

What Happened on the Day of Violence – Was it really Communal Tensions?

Kamaljeet Singh explained what had happened on the day he was hurt and the preceding events that led to it. In his statement, he revealed that he got into a verbal fight with Ricky over some money issues. Ricky held a grudge against Kamaljeet for the same and decided to hurt him in the worst way possible. In the rival man’s words, he wanted Mr. Singh to ‘pay’ for what he said to him.

A man named ‘Ishaq Khan’ called up Mr. Singh and asked him to come to the village’s dairy shop. The young man took his truck and arrived at the scene, just to show that he was not scared of anybody.

At around 11 AM, about 10 men got out of a car with weapons. They were holding sticks, pipes, rods, and even sharp-edged weapons. As soon as Kamaljeet saw that Ricky had a sharp weapon of his own, he tried to flee but was overpowered. The people pushed him back into the dairy shop and started attacking him.

They initially left gashes on his legs with the sharp tools and began hitting him to cause more damage. When they hit him on his head, Kamaljeet cried louder and called for help. When people started to gather around the place, the assassins fled the scene.

On investigation, Police found that Ricky took the help of Ishaq Khan who belonged to the Khandra village. Both of them were arrested for committing the crime of violence.

However, this whole scene which had nothing to do with religion was painted as ‘atrocities because of communal tensions’. 

Related Article: Communalism and Economic Marginalisation of Muslims

The Final Settlement

DSP Parmod Kumar gave his statement to the Indian News Channels that the incident had nothing to do with religious differences. He urged people to not pay heed to such false news and destroy the peace and harmony in the state. Moreover, he also explained how the fight emerged because of personal enmity between the two individuals. It is a case of unsettled monetary history.

It is strange to see how an age-old video was dug out of the closet and shaped into something it was not. This could be a misconception from the people’s end or a possible attempt at disrupting the established solidarity between the two religious groups. There could be a political angle too but for certainty, that won’t be revealed to the public.

That being said, the cyber cell asked the respective accounts to do the damage control/ Either delete the post or enlighten the crowd with the actual truth.