Islamophobic Remarks :
The leader of the Hindu Rashtra Sena, an extremist Hindu group active in certain regions throughout the state of Maharashtra and in the suburbs of Pune and Mumbai, is Dhanajay Desai.
Desai is a notorious felon who is currently facing more than 20 police prosecutions, including ones for extortion, robbery, and illegal firearm possession.
Desai has been inflaming anti-Muslim prejudice through his organization by spreading misinformation about alleged Islamic invasion on India. His group frequently uses threats and acts of violence to further the idea of a Hindu Rashtra (nation) for India.
In 2007, HRS members stormed the Star TV headquarters in Mumbai for reporting on an interfaith union involving a Hindu girl and a Muslim male.
The HRS has been charged with involvement in the German Bakery bombing case in Pune in February 2010 that resulted in at least 18 fatalities and more than sixty injuries.
Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, a rationalist and anti-superstition activist, was shot dead in Pune in August 2013, and police questioned Desai about his death.
Desai and other group members were detained by the Pune Cantonment Police in March 2014 on suspicion of disseminating unpleasant brochures designed to offend Muslims’ religious sensibilities on a large scale.
He has led numerous rallies in support of Hindu Monk Asaram Bapu, who was convicted of rape, since 2014.
However, his organization, HRS, came to public following the June 2, 2014, lynching of Muslim engineer Mohsin Sheikh in Pune. Mohsin was killed while walking home with his companion Riyaz Ahmed Mubarak Shendure after attending prayers at a mosque by thugs affiliated with Desai’s Hindu Rashtra Sena.
Desai was detained in connection with the incident, along with numerous other organization members. Before the Bombay High Court granted him regular release in 2019, the Pune Sessions Court denied his bail application eight times.
The two eyewitnesses claim that moments before killing Shaikh, Desai ordered his troops to beat up Muslims for posting disparaging images of Shivaji Maharaj on Facebook. (In 2019 a municipal court in Pune exonerated all the suspects, including Desai, for lack of evidence.)
A conference intended to express opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the National Population Register (NPR) was disrupted by threats made by Desai in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, in January 2020.
According to reports, he called the demonstration “treasonous” and its leaders “anti-national” and “traitors.”
All of the countrymen must reject marches and gatherings that are planned to support anti-national causes, he stated.
Throughout 2019–20, HRS actively interfered with anti–CAA marches and protests in the area by delivering repeated threats.
Desai regularly organizes and takes part in rallies, gives hate speeches, threatens violence against Muslims, and promotes anti-Muslim conspiracy theories like “land jihad” and “love jihad” as well as calls for an economic boycott of Muslims, emboldened by his acquittal in the 2014 lynching case.
A journalist was heard remarking in a video posted on Desai’s Twitter account, “Not every Muslim is a terrorist,” to which Desai responded, “I can’t sit to check which mosquito carries dengue; I need to have a good sleep.”