New Delhi, May 6 (PTI) Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha on Tuesday voiced his concern over the "normalisation of hate" in society, saying electoral priorities are increasingly overshadowing the need to protect the country's social fabric.
He was speaking at the launch of a "Hate Crime Tracker" by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR).
Jha noted that a private member's bill on hate crimes has remained pending in Parliament for the past six months.
"We are at a point where hatred is no longer shocking; it has become part of everyday life," he said, adding that politics is shifting away from safeguarding constitutional values towards a narrow focus on winning elections.
"The real challenge is whether we choose short-term political gains or the long-term idea of India," he said.
Jha also stressed the need to strengthen documentation efforts, such as independent hate crime trackers, suggesting a focus on the role of the judiciary.
"Tracking incidents is important, but equally important is understanding how institutions, including courts, respond, and at times become instrumental in these processes," he said.
Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh said there is a significant gap between official data and independently tracked incidents.
"Government data often aggregates cases under broad categories like riots, without capturing the identity-based nature of violence," he said.
Singh also criticised sections of the media and social platforms for amplifying polarising narratives. "When public discourse is constantly framed around religious identities, it shapes public attitudes in dangerous ways," Singh said.
Activist and former bureaucrat Harsh Mander flagged what he described as a worrying trend of increased hostility towards minority communities following elections in states such as West Bengal and Odisha.
"In some regions, being part of a minority community is itself becoming grounds for exclusion or violence. This is not the India envisioned by our founding leaders," he said.
Journalist Qurban Ali highlighted the absence of clear and enforceable guidelines on hate speech, noting that despite directions from the Supreme Court of India in 2022 to take suo motu action, implementation remains weak. "There is still a tendency to wait for formal complaints rather than act proactively," he said.
According to the APCR Hate Tracker website, 1,914 hate-related incidents have been recorded in India since 2014, including 1,153 instances classified as 'hate crime' and 761 as 'hate speech'.
Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 318 incidents reported since 2014, followed by Madhya Pradesh (126) and Maharashtra (104). FIRs were registered in 228 cases, the tracker said.
A representative from APCR said the database is compiled from incidents reported in the media, with details collected through a structured reporting format and cross-verification.
The website said it collates cases reported by credible news outlets, primarily from the English, Hindi and Urdu press.