Rs 63 lakh for hate? Congress flags Culture Ministry funding of event targeting Muslims

The Congress on Wednesday alleged that the Union Ministry of Culture financed an event in the national capital where speeches openly targeted the Muslim community, raising questions over the use of public funds and the role of the government in what it termed the ‘mainstreaming of hate’.

Addressing a press conference in Delhi, party spokesperson Ragini Nayak Basoya said the programme, Sanatan Rashtra Shankhnad Mahotsava, organised by Sanatan Sanstha at Bharat Mandapam in December, received Rs 63 lakh from the Union Culture Ministry. She said that the funding details were obtained through an RTI query.

According to her, the event featured speeches in which Muslims were described as ‘infiltrators’ and discussions were held on methods of religious conversion. She said the fact that such remarks were made at a government-funded platform indicated that hate speech was no longer confined to fringe elements, but had entered the mainstream.

Dr Basoya further pointed out that Union Ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Shripad Yesso Naik and Sanjay Seth, along with Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra, were present at the event. She said their attendance added legitimacy to a gathering where divisive remarks were made.

The Congress spokesperson alleged that since 2014, polarising rhetoric had steadily gained acceptance in public discourse. She referred to a recent social media post featuring Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and said that he was depicted pointing a gun at Muslims. She said this was not an act by a fringe activist, but by a sitting Chief Minister — reflecting what she described as the ‘normalisation of hostility in political communication’.

Basoya also noted that the Sanatan Sanstha has been under investigation by the Karnataka government in connection with the murders of journalist Gauri Lankesh and scholar M M Kalburgi. She questioned why public money was allocated to an organisation facing such scrutiny. She asked whether the Prime Minister endorsed the politics of polarisation, and sought a response on why Rs 63 lakh was sanctioned for the programme. Drawing a contrast, she referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diplomatic outreach to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his reception in Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation. She said India’s global standing as a secular democracy should not be undermined by domestic events that promote division.

The Congress leader further argued that the term ‘Sanatan’ was being misused, and said that the philosophy it represents does not endorse hostility or exclusion.

Calling for accountability, Basoya demanded that the government enact preventive legislation against hate speech to curb divisive rhetoric before it escalates. She said the use of public funds for programmes that allegedly promote communal hostility raises serious constitutional and moral concerns.