New Delhi: Hindutva leader Madhu Sharma, known as Maa Madhura, was seen assaulting a Muslim man in a train and made him touch her feet for allegedly pushing her while passing through the railway coach gallery.
In the video, Sharma is seen to be pulling the Muslim man by his hair and slapping him and does not let him speak. She threatened to take his life while forcefully asking him to touch her feet. “I will kill you. Touch my feet. (sic),” the woman is heard telling the Muslim man.
In the 41-second video, Sharma slapped the Muslim man over a dozen times and forced him to wear the skull cap while filming the act.
The only sentence that Muslim man is heard saying is, “Maine to dekha bhi nahi. (I didn’t even notice.)” He was trying to respond to Sharma’s allegation that he pushed her while crossing the alley.
The video was shared by Sharma on her Facebook page on October 18 (Monday). Facebook has put a “sensitive content” label on the video, but has still not made any effort to take action against it. On Twitter too, the video has been shared and glorified by a considerable number of right-wing influencers.
The video caption reads, “Friends, this is your Maa Madhura, thrashing a Jihadi snake because he had hit my shoulder while passing through the gallery. So, he had to face the consequences!”
Sharma is a disciple of far-right priest and militant Hindutva leader Yati Narsinghanand, who has described all of India’s Muslims as the ‘jihadist enemies’ of Hindus and that members of the community do not deserve the right to life. His role in stoking the violence that shook Northeast Delhi last year is well documented by The Wire. She can also be seen with several BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra and Suraj Pal Amu.
Kapil Mishra’s speech, according to the Delhi Minorities Commission, led to the Northeast Delhi riots in February 2020. In 2017, Suraj Pal Amu, leader of the Karni Sena, had announced a bounty on Deepika Padukone’s head for Padmaavat’s release. He is currently Haryana BJP spokesperson and has made a series of incendiary communal speeches at mahapanchayats recently.
Sharma can be seen with BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, who was arrested in connection with the raising of anti-Muslim slogans during a demonstration at the Jantar Mantar. Upadhyay had claimed the Delhi Police framed him, and was later granted bail. She can also be seen with Preet Singh, one of the organisers of the event at Jantar Mantar event, who is accused of creating enmity between different groups and inciting youth to propagate against a particular religion at the rally on August 8. The Wire
