The 2-men Hindu group that’s targeting sector after sector to bust namaz gatherings in Gurugram
Bharat Mata Vahini’s Dinesh Bharti has been to jail 3 times this year, but is out on bail. VHP is supporting him to prevent Gurugram ‘becoming Syria and Afghanistan’.
The open space at Sector 47 Gurugram where namaz was offered before protests led to a shift in location | Soniya Agrawal | ThePrint
Gurugram: On 22 October, members of Hindu Right-wing groups Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) gathered at a ground in Sector 12, Gurugram, while about 100-150 Muslims were offering their Friday prayers. The Hindu groups then allegedly started playing bhajans on speakers, and chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’.
Sector12, Gurugram, Haryana Naamzis occupying govt lands to offer namaz as hindu groups tey to resist this peacefully.. Can hindus ever dare to occupy lands for bhajan-kirtaa illegally like this? pic.twitter.com/ozg9zCXL0x
— Ritu (सत्यसाधक) #EqualRightsForHindus (@RituRathaur) October 22, 2021
Similar incidents have been reported from Sector 47, where the offering of Friday prayers at a public place — one of 37 sites designated by the administration for namaz — had been disrupted three times by 8 October.
While these incidents have made headlines, such disruptions have allegedly been a routine affair since March this year.
A name that often crops up as the alleged architect of these protests is Dinesh Bharti, a Gurugram-based businessman who deals in construction materials and seeks to present himself as a warrior of “justice” for the Hindu faith.
Since March, he says, he has been going from sector to sector in Delhi’s satellite town and interrupting public namaz sessions, reigniting old fault lines that have threatened the city’s social fabric.
Bharti leads an outfit called the Bharat Mata Vahini (BMV), which has all of two members, Bharti and Naresh Thakur, a 29-year-old autorickshaw driver.
The organisation describes itself as a vehicle against different forms of ‘jihad’ — a term that those in the Hindutva framework associate with alleged Islamic expansionist conspiracies. These include ‘land jihad’, ‘love jihad’, even ‘biryani jihad’.
On social media, 48-year-old Bharti, who also calls himself Dinesh Thakur, makes posts saying he wants to stop Muslims from reading the namaz in public spaces.
“I started the BMV in 2018. After spending eight years in Haridwar, I came to realise that Hindus in our country need protection. I took it upon myself to fight for Hindus who are on the back foot,” Bharti told ThePrint.
According to Bharti and others who turn up at the protests, they object to the namaz on account of concerns about an eventual takeover of the land, besides overcrowding.
However, the Muslims have cited a shortage of mosques in Gurugram to explain why they need to gather at public spaces for namaz.
In 2018, after protests against the prayers gained traction, the administration reduced the number of designated sites to 37 from 106, in consultation with members of both communities.
While Bharti says he aims to stop Muslims from “spreading” in Gurugram, police add that they are on alert to prevent law-and-order situations. Bharti has been arrested three times in light of his protests.
ThePrint reached Yash Garg, the Deputy Commissioner of Gurugram district, for a comment through calls, WhatsApp and SMS texts, but received no response till the publishing of this report.
Bharti is originally from Rohtak, but has been living in Gurugram since 1997.
“I had a deep inclination to take up sanyas, but I had family duties to fulfil. I spent eight years in Haridwar with the sadhus and learnt about the teachings of Hindu dharma. It is with this deep sense of responsibility towards my Hindu countrymen that I have returned to Gurugram to bring peace and justice,” he said.
Bharti claims he was a member of Gurugram unit of the BJP and was previously in-charge of stage decorations during rallies in the area. But district BJP sources distanced the party from him, with one source saying: “If he says he was a member, he probably could have been, but we have many members.”
Bharti added that he started protesting against open-area namaz after spotting one at a park in Sector 38.
“I raised complaints with police. After our repeated protests, the namaz was shut down in the area in March.”
In April, he said, he “started the same process in Sector 40 and Sector 39”.
He rallies support for his protests through social media. “I will be protesting against land jihad by Muslims on 26.3.2021 near Life Aid hospital. Request all Hindu brothers to join in,” one Facebook post made on 25 March read.
Screenshot of 25 March Facebook post by Dinesh Bharti (also known as Dinesh Thakur)
Bharti said the BMV is “doing everything within the ambit of the law and voicing our concerns regarding illegal Muslim activities in the city”.
“We aim to stop Muslims from spreading in Gurugram and spread the message of peace among Hindus. The Bharat Mata Vahini has 10-15 volunteers who turn up as and when required,” he claimed.
While Bharti, who claims to be a former BJP district worker, said he went to Sector 39 and Sector 47 after residents called him seeking help, residents denied the claim.
Ram Bhardwaj, an electrician, said the Hindu residents of the area were not involved with Bharti. “He started coming to our area in March and created a ruckus. He would raise anti-Muslim slogans and ask us to donate for his cause. Nobody had the time to engage with him,” he said.
Ties to Bharti were also downplayed by some residents of Sector 47, where the protests stopped after police and the local administration intervened and the praying site was moved 150 metres away.
According to the Residents Welfare Association (RWA), their main concerns about namaz in a public parking lot was overcrowding on Fridays. The proximity of the ground to a school made mothers of students uncomfortable, said Sunil Yadav, the RWA president.
While Yadav said Bharti is present in all the WhatsApp groups created by the RWA,he denied any communal motive behind their objections.
“We have been holding protests for the last one month. Kulbhushan Bhardwaj, a lawyer and former district president of the BJP, and Dinesh have both visited us once, but we have distanced ourselves from their communal agenda. Ours is a civic problem and I don’t want it to become an issue that they use to further their political ambitions,” Yadav said.
“Police have assured us that a solution to the problem will be found in 15 days,” he added.
Additional Commissioner of Police Aman Yadav told ThePrint: “We have been able to broker peace in Sector 47 for now. After a meeting was held between the residents from both sides with the district administration, the protest was called off. We have asked them for a time period of 15 days to come to a conclusion to the issue.”
However, Altaf Ahmad, founder of Gurgaon Ekta Manch — a citizens’ collective that works towards building communal harmony and providing relief to those in need in Gurugram — and one of the people offering namaz in Sector 47, said Bharti had instigated residents against Muslims.
“We have been witnessing how Bharti stopped namaz in several sectors. He keeps visiting the areas and convinces residents to join his campaign of hatred,” Ahmad said.
Speaking to ThePrint, some Muslims affected by the Sector 39 protest on 26 March said Bharti “turned up with sticks and axes in his car”.
Asked about the allegations, Bharti acknowledged that he did turn up with sticks. “I only picked up a stick because there were too many of them. I felt they would turn violent. The Congress may have given land to the Waqf board but this land belongs to the Hindus of the country and we will fight till all the land is taken away from Muslims,” he said.
When Bharti was first arrested, on 16 April, he was booked for allegedly promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred after a local cleric approached police. Bharti claims he was released in three hours.
He was again arrested on 30 September on similar charges. “Dinesh Bharti was arrested on 30 September under IPC Sections 107 and 151. These sections are used against persons who pose a threat to the law and order of an area,” said Gurugram Police PRO Subhash Boken.
He was released on 5 October and arrested again on 15 October. After the third jail stint, he was released on 23 October, said Bharti. Police sources added that all these charges are bailable.
Mufti Mohammad Salim, president of the Gurugram Jamiat Ulama, said holding public namaz is just a decision borne of helplessness. There are, he added, too few mosques for the huge Muslim population in the city.
“Our population is in lakhs but there are only 13 mosques in all of Gurugram. Having to hold the Friday prayers in the open is out of lack of space, and not to create friction between Hindus and Muslims,” he said.
The cleric said Muslims would happily hold the prayers in closed spaces if land for mosques is allotted to them in accordance with the size of the population.
Zakir Hussain, a 25-year-old mechanic in Sector 12, said the nearest mosque is seven kilometres away. “Our boss gives us a break of one hour a day. In that much time, we have to do our prayers and eat our food. Not to forget travelling so far will cost us money. If we don’t get to pray on this land, we won’t be able to pray at all,” he said.
VHP ‘won’t let Gurugram become Syria or Afghanistan’
Surendra Jain, the joint-general secretary of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, said the organisation had joined the movement, and “will not let Gurugram become Syria or Afghanistan”.
“Previous incidents indicate that whenever the Muslims gather to pray in the open, they end up taking over the land to create a mosque. Their weekly gathering in this fashion is a vulgar display of strength, which we will not tolerate. We will go there and read the Hanuman Chalisa now. We will not let our land become Syria or Afghanistan,” Jain told ThePrint.
Denying that any of the namaz attendees are locals, he added: “Muslim men from (adjacent district) Nuh etc are coming here to display their strength. These men who come are not locals; they are lying. They should respect law and order and pray within the confines of their homes and mosques.”
