BRINDA Karat, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, has written letters to Amit Shah, minister for home affairs, and to the Delhi police seeking action against those who posted hateful content against certain communities, on YouTube, Whatsapp and other social media platforms.

Sharing internet links of the hateful posts, Brinda Karat in her letter to the home minister, said that a number of videos are circulating on the YouTube channel and in Whatsapp groups which are clearly designed to incite communal hatred, violence and acts of terror against one specific community by another community.

“One of the videos incites “all Hindus” to enter houses of Muslims to teach them a lesson against so-called love jihad. Another video threatens those who do not say 'Jai Shri Ram' will be sent to the graveyard,” she said. 

Brinda Karat said that the videos and their circulation constitute criminal acts under the IPC, under the cyber laws and IT Act and also under the laws against acts of terror. “There is no doubt that by allowing circulation of such anti-national material on their channel, the owners or controlling authorizers of YouTube channel are also guilty,” she stressed.

Brinda Karat added that since YouTube has a worldwide reach, such communal hate and highly provocative videos emanating from India seriously damage India’s image across the world and could have dangerous consequences.

Urging the Home minister to take stringent action against the culprits, she said, “As home minister, you have the responsibility to ensure the security and well being of all of our citizens and to take strong action against those who seek to destroy that security and unity of all Indians.”

Brinda Karat and K M Tiwari, Delhi state secretary of CPI(M), have written to the Delhi police requesting them to take necessary action of filing FIRs. In her letter to the Delhi police, she urged them to file an FIR, arrest and take immediate action against the individuals who have spoken these words thus committing a crime under various sections of law mentioned above.

Karat also sought immediate action against the company ‘Janta Music’ named in one of the videos and to file an FIR and take appropriate action against YouTube for abetment to the crime by permitting circulation of the said videos on their platform.

She asked the police to send a takedown notice to YouTube to remove the video and stop the circulation of the offensive material. Following this, the video has been pulled down from the internet and is now not available for public viewing.