World’s foremost genocide expert Dr Gregory Stanton has said that the Indian government has a duty under the Genocide Convention to immediately punish those who have called for the genocide of India’s Muslims at the Haridwar ‘dharam sansad’ in December 2021.
According to Kashmir Media Service, delivering a plenary address a three-day global summit ‘India on The Brink’ held by the Genocide Watch to discuss instances of hate crimes against Muslims, Dr Stanton said, genocide does not have to be underway to be punishable. “Incitement to commit genocide is covered under the Genocide Convention, Article 3. Incitement to commit genocide is exactly what was preached at the Haridwar congregation,” he said.
Dr Stanton’s reference was to a Hindu religious gathering organised in December at the north Indian city of Haridwar, last year, where speakers openly called for the killing of Muslims. The self-styled Hindu monk, Yati Narasinghanand, who organised that meeting, was bailed by a court within days of arrest. Pooja Pandey, a saffron-robed female monk who also gave the call for genocide is yet to be charged or arrested.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was conceived in response to last century’s Holocaust in which over six million Jews were killed. India has ratified the Convention and is therefore covered under it.
Article 3 covers “direct and public incitement to commit genocide.”—INP
