What Is Confirmed And What Is Not: Kasganj Violence
Image Credit: NDTV, India Today
  • Whatsapp
  • Telegram
  • Linkedin
  • Print
  • koo
  • Whatsapp
  • Telegram
  • Linkedin
  • Print
  • koo
  • Whatsapp
  • Telegram
  • Linkedin
  • Print
  • koo

After the Republic Day violence that erupted in Kasganj district of Uttar Pradesh, 145 people have been arrested. 20 FIRs have been filed and 11 people have been arrested. This riot, where two groups pelted stones at each other during a “Tiranga Bike Rally” by activists of the RSS-backed students’ group ABVP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, resulted in the death of 22-year-old Chandan Gupta.

After this incident in the communally unstable district of Uttar Pradesh, different narratives have been doing the rounds on social media. But, not all of them are true.


What is verified and what is not?

Reports by DNA and Navbharat Times quoted Chandan Gupta’s father saying that his son died because he refused to chant ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. “My son was stopped and asked to say ‘Pakistan Zindabad, Hindustan Murdabad’. When Chandan refused, he was shot dead,” Shushil Gupta, Chandan Gupta’s father claimed. There is no verification to whether Chandan actually made the statement.

Another news doing rounds on social media and was also picked up by media channels claimed that a 24-year-old reporter, Rahul Upadhyay, died in the clashes.

Victims of kasganj violence which was occur by some terrorist on republic day , they were hoisting the tricolour and…

Posted by Harish Sharma on Monday, January 29, 2018

To prove the news wrong, the person who is the actual Rahul Upadhyay showed up at the police station himself. He said that he was not even present during the clashes and was away in his village, according to NDTV.


BJP denies Chandan Gupta’s affiliation to the party

The Indian Express reported that son of former UP CM Kalyan Singh who was supporting the sloganeering men, received a call from CM Yogi Adityanath. He handed over the phone to an activist of the Akhil Bhartiya Vaishya Ekta Samaj, Pradeep Chandra Gupta, who knows the victim’s family.

“Yogiji, aap inko Rs 50 lakh compensation, sarkari naukri aur shaheed ka darja ki ghoshna karein… lad rahe hain aapke liye aur ladte rahenge (Yogiji, please announce Rs 50 lakh compensation, a government job and martyr’s status for them… we are fighting for you and will continue to fight for you),” Pradeep Chandra Gupta told the caller.

On the other hand, BJP’s Kasganj district chief, Purendra Pratap Singh Solanki, denied allegations that his party was involved in the clash. “The victim, Chandan Gupta, did not belong to the BJP or any of its affiliated organisations. The Tiranga Yatra was taken out by local residents,” he claimed.


Conspiracy theories

Various Hindutva organisations have been alleging that the riot was the result of a well-thought-out conspiracy, according to The Week. The daily also reports that the police have arrested one Vaseem Javed for murder and a pistol was recovered from his residence in search operations. However, according to police, his role in the incident is still being probed.

Aaj Tak conducted a ground report countering the report by its own anchor Rohit Sardana.

The locals, who were mostly Muslims, gave accounts to the media that they had arranged for Republic Day celebrations in the area when hundreds of men in motorcycles came. The locals asked them to not take the route as there were chairs kept for the program and a flag hoisting ceremony was about to commence. But the alleged RSS-backed groups started sloganeering.



One of the editors of ABP News, Pankaj Jha, has stated that he has received death threats for his reportage on Kasganj communal violence.


Hate-mongering narrative

“Members of the Muslim community were about to hoist the national flag when the incident took place,” IGP Dhruva Kant Thakur, who reached Kasganj from Lucknow on Saturday morning, said, as reported by The Indian Express.

But these are the kind of narratives being circulated on social media to spread hate:


Hindu samrat Yogi Jee !!!

Posted by Kuntal Chakraborty on Monday, January 29, 2018


Love it Now pls give good compensation to that boy family YogiRocks PeacefulShocks

Posted by Kuntal Chakraborty on Sunday, January 28, 2018


Taking out Tiranga Yatra is also wrong as per few communities in India..

Posted by Kuntal Chakraborty on Friday, January 26, 2018


Voices mummed

Sunil Kumar Singh, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Kasganj district, who hinted a political conspiracy behind the recent communal violence, was transferred to police training school in Meerut by the Yogi Adityanath government.

The SP had said to the media that there was a possibility of a political conspiracy, according to a report by Caravan Daily. Singh also pointed out that the provocative slogans raised by the participants of Tiranga Yatra had triggered the violence and the organisers had not taken permission from the authorities.

Contributors Suggest Correction
Editor : Poorbita Bagchi

Must Reads