Videos related to the program show a mob calling Muslims “pigs” and demanding “mass murder” of the minority, which makes up 14% of India’s 1.35 billion population.

Among the slogans raised at the event were “Jab mulle kaate jayenge, wo Ram Ram chillayenge” (When Muslims will be slain, they will chant Lord Ram’s name) and “Hindustan mein rahna hoga, to Jai Shri Ram kahna hoga” (If you want to live in India, you must say Hail Lord Ram).

Ram is one of the most revered deities in the Hindu religion.

The BJP-led movement to demolish a 16th-century mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya, which, according to Hindu groups, was based on Ram’s birthplace, gave the party political prominence in the 1980s.

The mosque was demolished in 1992 and Modi laid the foundation stone for the construction of a temple last year.

On Monday night, Upadhyay and four others were “detained for questioning”, according to a Delhi Police spokesperson. Police initially filed charges against “unknown individuals” behind the incident.

Held in the heart of the Indian capital and barely a kilometer (half a mile) from the Indian Parliament building, the event has stunned New Delhi’s Muslim residents, who are still reeling from last year’s deadly riots in the city.

In February last year, at least 53 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the capital in the worst religious violence in 30 years.

The riots took place during a nationwide protest against a controversial law passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2019, which grants Indian citizenship to non-Muslim minorities from neighboring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Critics say the law violates India’s secular constitution by discriminating against Muslims.

Muslim Indians in the capital say there is increasing fear in the community because of the “impunity enjoyed by Hindu supremacist forces” in the country.

The RSS was formed in 1925, inspired by Germany’s Nazi party, in order to create an ethnic Hindu state in India.

https://twitter.com/asfreeasjafri/status/1424436112550813703?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1424436112550813703%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2021%2F8%2F10%2Farrests-in-thailand-amid-zero-tolerance-for-dissent

Dwarka, where that mahapanchayat happened is home to many activists and organisations that like to protest in safety of Jantar Mantar or in Muslim areas. It's time they focus on their neighbourhood. Try to cure the rot closer to home.

— Anas Tanwir (@Vakeel_Sb) August 8, 2021

On Friday, two days before the Jantar Mantar celebrations, residents of Dwarka Mohalla in New Delhi and Hindu groups held a “Maha Panchayat” (Grand Council) to object to the construction of the Hajj house.

The government-funded building is intended to house Indian Muslims before leaving for the annual pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca.

Opponents of the project at the meeting said the construction of the Hajj House would affect the neighbors’ “brotherhood, harmony and peace” and create a “Shaheen Bagh, Jaffarabad and Kashmir-like situation” forcing Hindus to relocate.

Shaheen Bagh, a mostly Muslim enclave on the outskirts of New Delhi, was the center of anti-citizenship protests last year, led mainly by women in the neighborhood.

Under the BJP’s RSS ideology, Jaffarabad, a large Muslim-populated area in northeast Delhi, witnessed the worst violence in last year’s religious riots. Provocative slogans against Muslims were also chanted at the Dwarka gathering, with several speakers calling for mass killings.

The All Dwarka Residents Federation (ADRF), which led the protest, urged the Delhi government to cancel the allotment of land for the Hajj House in the “national interest”.

ADRF President Ajit Swamy says the Hajj House building would cause “inconvenience to local residents” and that “any untoward incident could lead to riots”.