"Cracked His Skull" Was Not All. Far-Right Influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj's Vitriol Spanned Hour-Long Podcast
Far-right influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj has been detained following the circulation of a video where he bragged about assaulting a protester's father. Further investigation into his podcast appearances revealed extensive hate speech directed at Muslims, including calls for economic boycotts and the formation of a hardline political party.
Why it matters
The incident highlights the growing influence of extremist rhetoric on social media platforms and the challenges authorities face in regulating hate speech that incites real-world violence.
The viral clip was not the whole of it. Swatantra Bhardwaj's vitriol lasted at least an hour in that podcast. The far-right influencer, detained on Friday for attacking a student protester's father at the Cockroach Janta Party protest in June, faced action mainly after a video clip went viral. In it, he bragged that he "cracked the skull" of Sanjay Kumar, whose daughter, Dalit activist Nishu Aazad, was among the protesters.The clip was from an interview with a podcast channel in which he revealed at length his hatred for several sections, including Muslims, and made some wild claims about political patronage."If a person wearing a round cap, long beard, and short pyjamas passes by me, I feel like vomiting," he said in a comment directed at Muslims in the conversation with 'The Casual Talk', uploaded on September 1.He went on, unbothered that he was on a public platform.
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