Saffron terror in Delhi: Fascist forces are a threat to even peaceful agitations!
A new series of protests have been taking place in Delhi since October 10. After Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation in Jantar Mantar 1.0, 2.0 set its target as the resignation of the CEC Gyanesh Kumar as a response to the investigation by the Indian Express which revealed 2 of the 3 election commissioners objected and flagged moves by the ECI as “unauthorised” and “illegal” which were carried out despite these objections. During these protests we have seen journalists and protestors document police brutality, mass detentions and inflitration by Hindutva goons. In most cases, the hindutva goons are able to enter the midst of protestors, threaten them, assault them, chant fascist slogans without any hindrance from the Delhi police. To undestand the nature of these fascist forces that are present and unhindered by the police (who enforce ‘law and order’) becomes a crucial aspect for democratic forces to understand.
The armies formed of Nazis in Hitler’s time did not just beat and kill Jews; their target also became Germans who were fighting against poverty, unemployment, and rising prices. Although they initially pretended to protect the people of their “own race and religion” against “other races and religions,” in reality these were forces serving the interests of finance capital against the working class and all that stood between them and their fascist goals. In India too people seem to have this misconception about saffron fascism. The common perception about the saffron fascist forces is that they are a gang of thugs who attack and lynch Muslims and Christians, that the ‘cow guards’ are there to stop cow slaughter; the anti-Romeo forces are there to stop the ‘love jihad’ movement in which Muslim men marry Hindu women and convert them; and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal are there to prevent the propagation of “foreign” religions by invading Christmas celebrations.
No matter how much they are covered up by the veils of race and religion, the struggles of the people clearly expose their class nature. Fascists are chosen by capital in its time of crisises to serve its interest of profiteering and continued exploitation of the working people. Hence, by their very nature, saffron-corporatist fascists always have in their crosshair the working class who struggle against this exploitation.
The Jantar Mantar protests have once again clearly shown the truth that the saffron fascist thugs are an organised armed force aimed against the working people who are fighting for their basic rights and livelihood against the saffron-corporatist regime.
In the Jantar Mantar 1.0 protests, a significant number of those who came to the protest site, angry that their educational dreams were being dashed, were Hindu middle class voters who voted for the BJP. This same force, which was said to be going to destroy “others” and “foreign conspirators” to protect Hindus, has unleashed its vicious attack on the same Hindus who voted for the BJP.
“The same finger that I used to vote for the BJP was broken by the police today with a lathi.” These are the words spoken by the youth protesting at Jantar Mantar. It cannot be said that the finger was broken by just the police. Because to crush this protest, the Delhi Police, the Central Paramilitary Forces, and members of organizations like the saffron fascist thugs, Bajrang Dal, were brought down in plain clothes with nail-studded lathis.
With nail-studded lathis and stones, it has torn apart the bodies of Hindus who voted for it; cracked their skulls; and sexually assaulted the young women of those Hindu households. These are not mere speculations or baseless allegations. The witness to this is the video of Abhishek Thakur, the leader of the saffron fascist thugs, swinging a lathis while chanting, “Delhi Police, tum lath bajao, hum tumhare saath hain” (Delhi Police, wield your batons; we are with you).
Not only this, numerous videos of mobs entering the protest site in plain clothes and carrying lathis and attacking students have surfaced on social media. Some saffron fascist thugs, dressed as police without name badges, entered the crowd and staged a murderous attack. These videos are currently being removed from the internet by Meta as per the orders of the Modi government.
On the evening of October 11, Journalists and protestors spotted a car with 4 people which was fillled with sticks, rather than attempting to investigate the driver or people in the car, Delhi police was seen escorting it. Reporters even urged the police to check the car, but these calls were blatantly ignored. Later, one of the men who was in that car was seen taking a stick out of a car and threatening protestors using it.
All the men from that car were associated with Hindutva outfits such as “Hindu Raksha Dal” and the kinds of Swatantra Bhardwaj.
In an interview after the July 20 protests, Swatantra Bhardwaj had openly said, “The lathi and shoes in my hand belong to the police; I also attacked the father of the protestor named Nishu; he has now received 60 stitches on his head and is fighting for his life; I cannot be charged with murder; because Chirag Paswan and Modi are all my brothers.” He has openly said, “I am not even in jail; I am roaming freely outside” for carrying out such a murderous attack. The purpose of this is nothing other than to incite fascists across the country to commit such murderous acts, with the firm belief that the state institutions would not touch them!
In a recent interview with Outlook magazine, Bhupendra Tomar (aka Pinky Bhaiya) of Hindu Rakhsa Dal took full responsibility of violence on the protestors in Delhi. He has said things such as, “We are absolutely clear that all these cockroaches [CJP members] who speak against Sanatan Dharma, we will act against them. We will teach them a lesson and beat them up.”
“Now, it is our duty to ensure that our followers and workers understand the importance of Hindutva and follow it fanatically.”
Referring to the violence in 2020 anti-CAA protests he said, “This is exactly what we did in JNU also. People used to be very worried about JNU but after [our] action in JNU, now people of JNU are scared of Hindu Raksha Dal.”
“There are more than 50 cases against me, but I don’t care. How many Muslim countries are there in the world? How many countries follow Christianity? There is only one India for Hindus.”
These quotes clearly show how well fascists thugs have understood their part in Hindu Rashtra project: To unleash violence against any who they perceive standing against their dream of Hindurashtra; and anyone who stands against Modi-shah’s policies they will perceive as such. In December 2025, 6 members of the same Hindu Rashtra Dal were arrested for distributing swords and axes in Ghaziabad!
On the night of October 11, Journalists reported that members of Hindu Rashtra Dal were wearing skull caps (pretending to be Muslims) while beating up and assaulting protestors, basically, they will manufacture the communal agenda when none has grounds to exist!
When Neha Bora, the president of the All India Students’ Association (AISA) protested against the examination irregularities in Jharkhand, where Hemant Soren’s party (JMM) which is a part of INDIA bloc is in power, the saffron force attacked her as well. Remember this! There, she had criticized the Hemant Soren (JMM) government, an INDIA bloc party! Therefore, we should understand that the saffron fascist army will hunt those who are against the interests of finance capital even if they criticize not only Modi but also the opposition parties!
On August 27th, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, more than 30 saffron thugs from the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad not only stopped a reading circle organized by a civil society organization using books by Malala Yousafzai, Anne Frank, Che Guevara, Nehru, and Gandhi, but also attacked the students, youth, and democratic forces gathered there with iron rods and wooden sticks.
We can go on and on about these incidents. In all the above incidents, what beef did all those affected by these murderous fascist forces have?! Did they commit love jihad?! Or were they involved in religious conversion campaigns?! These are the Hindus whom the saffron fascist gang claims to protect! And a significant number of them are Hindus who voted for the BJP!
The same fascist thugs attacked the JNU students who were protesting against the CAA and cracked their skulls. The same fascist forces attacked the farmers who were protesting against the three land laws, smashed their kitchens and washing machines, and attacked them. The same fascist forces attacked the NEET protestors and the anti-SIR protestors. Tomorrow, if Hindu workers fight for higher wages, if the youth fight for jobs; To stand against capitalist loot is to stand agianst Hinduvtra project!. If the people fight for their fundamental rights, the same fascist forces will be used to suppress them!
These incidents are not isolated from each other. The saffron terrorists, which has successfully created a fascist terrorist network across the country, carries out such activities very easily and quickly. We must realize that this network is rooted and working in all parts from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Gujarat to Assam. Such forces are also growing very rapidly in Tamil Nadu, which is considered to be the land of Periyar and thought to be generally anti-BJP. To create such forces, the RSS is conducting 1400+ Shaka classes every day across Tamil Nadu! It is providing weapons training which includes gun training!!
On nights of October 6 and october 7, slogans were raised by a Hindutva mob in Connaught place calling the police to use force against those planning to protest on October 10. They once again raised the slogan of, “Delhi Police, tum lath bajao, hum tumhare saath hain,” (Delhi Police, wield your batons, we are with you). These chants then became “Goli maaro gaddaron ko” (Shoot the traitors) and “Umar Khalid murdabad” (Death to Umar Khalid), punctuated by chants of “Jai Shri Ram”. Who are the traitors to in their eyes? They are no one else but hindus who have “betrayed” the cause of Hindu Rashtra and do not support the fascist goals. Hence, these hindus have become traitors.
Other parties also have thugs and party goons, attacking those who criticize their party and leader; but these are not the same as the saffron fascist forces. These fascist armies, which are armed, secret, semi-secret armies, specifically formed to destroy the democratic forces, the people who are fighting against finance capital and fascism, are ideologically armed. They are an army imbued with fascist fervor in every cell of their body. The testimony of the Sanatan Sanstha members who killed Kalburgi, Pansare and Dabholkar, who said, “The weapons in our hands are like the wheel in the hand of Perumal [Sudarshana Chakra of Vishnu]; they are for destroying demons,” is a testimony to this!
What they describe as demons and traitors are all those who oppose the interests of finance capital and the fascist gang’s Hindu Rashtra project, including farmers, workers, youth, intellectuals! In short, these are not killers for hire, but killers for ideology!!
Therefore, propagating to the people about such a force, confronting them, building a political, ideological army to confront this, or undertaking the initial work for it, has become a prerequisite for conducting a peaceful proteset in today’s political scenario. From now on, these fascist forces will come to attack and kill those involved in it during every struggle. If we are not prepared to confront them, a situation will arise where it will not be possible to conduct even a peaceful protest. This is an important lesson that the experiences of the anti-CAA, Delhi farmers, NEET, anti-SIR protests have clearly taught us.
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