By MD Mesha

NEW DELHI (TSAT) - Following the Hijab ban on Muslim girls students in the education institutions, now Indian ruling party-affiliated nationalist wing started a “boycott Muslim shops” campaign in the country. 

The campaign launched to ban the sale of Hala meat by Hindu nationalist Bajrang Dal workers in Bhadravathi in Karnataka’s Shivamogga district spread to other parts of the country as well. 

Bajrang Dal, a Hindu nationalist militant organization is also a member of the right-wing Sangh Parivar affiliated with the Hindu militant organization RSS.

The current ruling BJP party is the political wing of the RSS. 

In Karnataka, police arrested at least five workers of the group, who were later released on a phone call from a local state government minister, a local police officer said on condition of anonymity as the state ruling by the hardliner BJP. 

According to Indian Express, the militant wing leaders visited markets in Bengaluru and other areas and asked the people to not buy meat from Muslim shops but go for shopping in Hindu shops. 

The latest move came after the Karnataka state banned Muslim girls with Hijab in the education institutions later the local high court also endorsed the state government order and closed the doors of schools and colleagues' for Muslim girls. 

The Hindu groups also banned Muslim traders from setting up stalls on the temple premises, according to the Indian Express. 

The BJP-led state government has refused to take any action against these groups and said the groups have not created any law and order situation so far.

“It (halal issue) has just now started, we have to study it in its entirety because it has nothing to do with any rules” the daily quoted Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai as saying.

“The law-and-order situation in the state has remained intact. Various organizations will be doing their campaigns, we know what to respond to do and what not to. Where it is required, we will respond. We don’t (respond) when it is not required.”

Hindu militant organization, Sri Rama Sene founder Pramod Muthalik while inciting the right-wing people said “Muslim selling halal products and use funds for economic jihad”, the report said. 

India is a country of over 1.3 billion people, the majority of them are Hindus.

While the Muslim population is over 200 million, which is the world's third-largest Muslim-minority population but since 2014 …. When Prime Minister Modi came into power…. they are facing hatred and violence from Hindu nationalist groups.

The International rights organization, Human Rights Watch last year in its report said that members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), since coming to power at the national level in May 2014, have increasingly used communal rhetoric that has spurred a violent vigilante campaign against the minorities in the country.

“Since May 2015, at least 50 people have been killed, mostly Muslims, and hundreds injured in attacks by these so-called cow protection groups, many claiming affiliations with militant Hindu groups that often have ties to the BJP,” said HRW in its report last year. 

"Police have often stalled prosecutions of the attackers, while several BJP politicians have publicly justified the attacks. In a number of cases, police have filed complaints against victims’ family members and associates under laws banning cow slaughter, leaving witnesses and families afraid to pursue justice,” it’s added.