The official website of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) was hacked, purportedly by a member of the ‘Team Kerala Cyber Warriors’ on Friday, 24 August. The homepage of the website, which is decorated in saffron along with photos of political leaders and updates on the organization, was replaced with a black page with images of a sliced medium-done beef steak and a detailed recipe for preparing a traditional Kerala Spicy Nadan Beef Curry”.
“Hacked by Ghos7_Roo7,” the website read. For almost three hours on Friday, the website displayed the logo of the hackers, a video of the meat being cut and an elaborate recipe. Under the recipe, a message was uploaded by the hackers for the President of the Hindu Mahasabha.
“...We respect people for their character and not for their food habits.”
The action came shortly after Swami Chakrapani, the chief of the Hindutva outfit, was seen in a video saying “beef-eaters should not be saved” from flood-affected Kerala. He said, Kerala floods, which had displaced nearly 5.61 lakh people who are now living in camps and killed over 200 people, was the supernatural consequence of people in Kerala “disrespecting” cows and consuming beef.
The self-acclaimed godman had said that innocent people had died during the floods because people in the state killed cows and “exhibited it in shops.” He had gone on to say that those who eat beef or are involved in the killing of cows should not be given relief by the government or other Hindus.
The messages and the videos were deleted from the website and three hours after it was hacked, the website was down and displayed an Error 404 message.
Kerala is slowly limping back to normalcy, after witnessing its worst floods in a century. Over 230 people lost their lives, and lakhs of people had to be moved to shelters across the state.