CLAIM
A speech by activist Harsh Mander from 16 December is being circulated online to claim that the activist is instigating violence in the national capital.
The 00:55 second video has been shared by the likes of BJP IT-Cell Head Amit Malviya who hit out at Mander and said, “This man Harsh Mander, who wrote the draconian CVB, is in HC to get FIRs against people for hate speech... And a judge gave him midnight hearing!”
The archived version of the tweet can be viewed here.
In the clip Mander can be heard saying, “This fight wouldn’t be won in the Supreme Court also. Because we have seen the Supreme Court, in the last few times, in case of NRC, Ayodhya, Kashmir, Supreme Court hasn’t protected humanity, equality and secularism. But we will definitely try there as well. It’s our Supreme Court. But the decision wouldn’t be taken in the Parliament or the Supreme Court. The decision on what kind of future this country will have, all of you are youngster, what kind of future do you wish to give your children, where will this decision be taken? One, It will be taken on the streets and we have taken to the streets.”
There have been allegations against Mander that his speech played a role in instigating violence that gripped Delhi in which nearly 47 people have been reportedly killed.
This same clip has also been followed by another user Rahul Kaushik, who is followed by Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Further, right wing website Opindia, too, published an article with the headline: ‘Watch: “Supreme Court did not save secularism in Ayodhya, so now time has come to hit the streets” Harsh Mander inciting mob violence.”
The video has been shared on Facebook as well.
WHAT’S THE TRUTH?
We found a tweet shared by Harsh Mander’s organisation Karwan e Mohabbat that had shared a 07:37 minute long version of the same viral video.
In the video, Mander can be seen addressing the students of Jamia Milia Islamia University on 16 December 2019, a day violence erupted in the university campus.
He makes the remarks heard in the viral video at 04:31 minutes. But at no point can he be heard instigating violence.
At 03:15 minutes, he says, “We are saying that this is one country, Hindustan, and the Hindus, Muslims, Sikh, Christians, Budhists, atheists, adhivasis, dalits, rich, poor, man, woman, of this country have equal rights. And whoever asks you this question, and claims that your rights will be taken away, a movement has started to protest against them, and to save our country's constitution and the soul of our constitution, and the love and the solidarity, we have taken to the streets and will continue to do so. This fight can't be won in the parliament because our political parties, that claim to be secular, they don't have that moral courage to fight anymore.”
Then, he goes on to make the statements heard in the viral clip and continues to say, “But even beyond roads, there is one more place where this will be decided. At which place, will the decision be taken? That place is in our hearts. In my heart, in your heart. If they want to fill us with hatred, and if we respond to them with hatred only, then the amount of hatred will just deepen.”
Later in the video, Mander advocates the message of being non-violence even if somebody advocates violence.
"The answer to their hatred is only one, which is love. They will do violence, they will instigate us to do violence, we will never be violent,” he can be heard as saying at 6:20 minutes.
Evidently, a clipped version of Harsh Mander’s speech is doing the rounds to propagate the false narrative that he instigated violence while addressing Jamia students in December 2019.
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