Kajal Hindusthani: In the eye of Una clash storm, right-wing, ‘anti-love jihad’ activist

On April 1, the Una police filed an FIR against about 75 alleged rioters, who were also detained. All of them are from Una.

The police filed another FIR against Kajal Hindusthani on April 2. “Kajal Hindusthani has been booked for hate speech and instigating communal violence and riot between two groups,” said NK Goswami, the Una police station inspector.

On April 2, Kajal Hindusthani’s Twitter handle announced her presence at an upcoming “Hindu Jagruti Sammelan” to be held in New Delhi.

Gir Somnath district in-charge superintendent of police, Sripal Sheshma, told The Indian Express on April 2: “Two FIRs were filed at the Una police station against Kajal Hindusthani, who allegedly gave the hate speech on Ram Navami, and against those from both the groups allegedly involved in rioting. More than 60 persons have been detained from both sides. More people will be detained as and when they will be identified after the analysis of the footage and body cameras. Hindusthani cannot be found at her residence and we are yet to detain her.”

तो मिलते है आज दिल्ली में…
हिंदू जागृति सम्मेलन में दिल्ली के भाई बहन सादर आमंत्रित है।

जय श्री राम जय हिन्दू राष्ट्र🚩 pic.twitter.com/nT4tuaSLq8

— Kajal HINDUsthani (@kajal_jaihind) April 2, 2023

On April 3, Sheshma told the Express: “More people are being detained now. Shingala (Kajal Hindusthani) would be detained in a day or two, she was in Delhi or Noida when the FIR was filed against her on Sunday. We had earlier gone to search for her at her Jamnagar residence.”

Kajal Hindusthani is a native of Rajasthan, whose maiden name is Kajal Trivedi. She married a businessman from Jamnagar, Jwalant Shingala, about two decades ago.

Her website claims she had campaigned for Om Birla, the Lok Sabha Speaker, in the 2019 parliamentary election in Rajasthan’s Kota constituency. Her verified Twitter handle is followed by the verified Twitter handle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A source said, “She (Kajal Hindusthani) became active on social media from 2015-16 onwards and started posting her views on YouTube etc. Gradually, she created a base of followers on her own through social media. This caught the attention of VHP which started inviting her to its public meetings in recent years.”

However, after she was booked by the Una police for her “hate speech”, the VHP has distanced itself from Kajal Hindusthani, with its state spokesperson Hitendra Rajput telling the Express that she was not invited by the organisation to the Ram Navami meeting.

Inspector Goswami, however, said, “She (Kajal Hindusthani) gave the speech at Trikon bagh in Una town right after the Ram Navami shobha yatra on March 30. No other complaint has been booked against her in Gujarat. But one case has been registered against her in Udupi in Karnataka in 2022 for a similar case.”

Due to her social media posts, Kajal Hindusthani started receiving threats online. In 2017, she had sought help from leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Jamnagar in this regard. The BJP leaders had then helped her get in touch with senior police officers of the Jamnagar district.

“She (Kajal Hindusthani) has displayed a lot of courage when it comes to the public speaking,” claims a BJP leader, requesting anonymity. “She created her own identity by deftly utilising social media platforms and despite not having any conventional institution, say an NGO, to reach out to the masses,” the leader says.

Kajal Hindusthani describes herself as “Aarya veera”, “social activist”, “HINDUsthani” on Instagram, Her posts on this platform show her association with the VHP, Bajrang Dal, Brahmakumaris, etc. She is known for gunning for minority communities like Muslims and Christians on various issues including inter-faith marriages or relationships, raking up cases such as the Shraddha Walkar case, the Tunisha Sharma suicide, and the wedding of Hindi film actress Swara Bhaskar, among others.

In her social media posts she has targeted the Opposition parties and their leaders, such as Uddhav Thackeray and his Shiv Sena faction over the Hanuman chalisa row in Mumbai in 2022. She has also mounted attacks on top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

In her Twitter account, Kajal Hindusthani describes herself as “entrepreneur”, “research analyst”, “debater”, “social activist”, “pro India right”, “nationalist” and a “proud HINDUsthani”.

Her website claims she gave up her surname Shingala on social media and “adopted a nationalistic approach by using HINDUsthani with her name”. It states that some of her “accomplishments” and social activities were “a part of 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign; to spread various achievements of BJP & PM Narendra Modi among NRI’s & Gujarati NRI’s in 2018 travelled to various US cities to deliver speech, since 2018 goes to US every year to deliver speech”.

She claims to have “rescued” women who are victims of “love jihad” and “settled” Pakistani Hindus in Gujarat.

The Una police has said that “provoked by the alleged hate speech delivered by Kajal Shingala alias Kajal Hindusthani who identifies herself as a social activist, in a public meeting after the Ram Navami procession, a crowd of about 200, belonging to Hindu and Muslim communities were pelting stones at each other, near fish market of the Kumbharwada area”. The police tried to intervene but could not tackle the situation, and more police force was called, and eventually the crowd dispersed. Some of these people were also found with swords and iron rods.

The alleged rioters have been booked under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 143 (member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), and other relevant sections of the IPC under section 135 of the Gujarat Police Act.

On April 4, inspector Goswami said, “We are still searching for her (Kajal Hindusthani). She will soon be detained.”

On Wednesday evening, Goswami told the Express: “Eightyeight people from both the groups were given bail by a local court in Gir Somnath district as on Wednesday. We have been detaining those who were allegedly involved in the Una clash on Ram Navami day… There was no remand demanded from our (police) side, and they were given bail. More people might be detained. We are yet to detain Kajal Shingala.”