By CJP Team
The Virat Hindu Conference, held on January 21, 2026, featured Hindutva influencers and local leaders who glorified the 1989 Bhagalpur riots, spoke approvingly of a 15-minute suspension of law and order, and urged the killing, abduction, and demographic reduction of minority communities. Video recordings of these speeches circulated widely on social media almost immediately, leaving little room for ambiguity about what was said or what was meant.
Still, no case was registered.
An FIR was finally registered on Tuesday, January 27, but by the time the police acted, the damage had already been done—not just in words spoken, but in what the delay itself revealed.
Incidentally, “Direct and public incitement to commit genocide” is expressly prohibited by Article III(c) of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention and is punishable even if the genocide does not actually occur. Besides, incidentally, it is concerning that Indian authorities are so lax on such utterances when Genocide Watch has already adjudged India as an ‘enabler’ and in a report published in 2024 outlined how, in India all the early warning signs of a potential genocide of/against Muslims is present and that this threat must be addressed quickly and proactively. This report of Genocide Watch may be read here.
Five days earlier, according to the report of Siasat, at a public religious-political gathering in Shivgarh, Raebareli, speakers stood on a stage, before a cheering crowd, and openly called for mass violence against Muslims, invoking the logic, language, and memory of one of India’s most brutal communal massacres. They did not whisper. They did not speak in riddles. They asked for bloodshed, mocked past killings, and framed genocide as retaliation and “peace.”
This story was originally published in cjp.org.in. Read the full story here.