Islamophobic Remarks :
Kirodi Baba, also known as Dr. Kirodi Lal Meena, is a prominent tribal leader and a member of the extreme right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He has held two terms in the Lok Sabha (Union Parliament) and four terms in the Rajasthan legislative assembly. He is currently a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament.
Hardline Hindu extremist figures like Meena rose to prominence after the 2014 “Modi-Wave,” which represented major political victories for the BJP led by Narendra Modi. Since then, he has emerged as a leading figure in Rajasthan’s anti-minority leadership, and he has remained well-liked by the extreme right wing of the Hindu community during his time there.
Meena has been accused of crimes on several occasions. He and his supporters were accused in December 2017 of trying to forcefully enter a private religious establishment in Shanwali Village, Jaipur, Rajasthan, in violation of CrPc 151 (prevention of cognizable offense). According to the Hindustan Times, Meena is facing multiple charges in Rajasthan related to rioting, unlawful assembly, endangering life, and aiding and abetting the commission of public offenses.
Meena also frequently participates in anti-Hindu and anti-Muslim extreme gatherings and demonstrations, where she makes inflammatory remarks and uses genocidal rhetoric. He and his supporters can be seen threatening and frightening Muslims and other people who oppose Hindu extremism in a number of films posted on Facebook.
He posted a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi talking about the propaganda film “The Kashmir File” on social media in March 2022. This post sparked hate speech and widespread anti-Muslim prejudice. Meena made light of activists who have rebelled against hate speech and the Modi regime’s suppression of dissent in the post, writing, “[Those who wave] flags of Freedom of Expression are in panic.”
Meena made a hate speech in October 2023 at a gathering in Jaipur, Rajasthan, calling Muslims and Muslim politicians “Jihadis,” “anti-national,” and heretics. He went on to urge listeners to get ready for a “Mahabharata,” alluding to a conflict between good and evil found in Hindu texts and suggesting that Muslims were the “evil” that needed to be vanquished.