Human rights defenders and activists from several organizations, including ANHAD, held a demonstration outside the Uttarakhand Bhawan here and made a demand for the arrest of those who appealed for genocide against Muslims in India at a three-day event at Haridwar, a Hindu religious town in the hilly state of Uttarakhand, between December 17-19.
India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI—Several NGOs led by ANHAD held a demonstration in front of the Uttarakhand Bhawan here on Monday. They submitted a memorandum to Uttarakhand Resident Commissioner, seeking the arrest of Yati Narsinghanand, Prabodhanand Giri, Sadhvi Annapurna, Dharam Das Maharaj, Anand Swarup Maharaj, and all others who organized the event and indulged in hate speeches at Haridwar from December 17 to 19.
Condemning the event, organizations demanded, “to ensure an immediate stop to such gatherings which are organized to vitiate the atmosphere and polarize the people of India.”
It said that a “Dharm Sansad”, or “religious Parliament,” was organized at Haridwar in which “several leaders associated with Hindutva extremist organizations gave an open call for Hindus to arm themselves and eliminate Muslims from the country.”
Hindu Mahasabha general secretary Sadhvi Annapurna gave a direct call for the mass murder of Muslims. “She said, we need 100 soldiers who can kill 20 lakh of them (Muslims). She added, ‘Matr shakti ke sher se panje hain. Phaad kar rakh denge’”, the memorandum quoted the Sadhavi having said.
Dharam Sansad was organized by Swami Yati Narsinghanand, spewing venom against Muslims for months.
At the Dharam Sansad, he said, “Economic boycott (against the Muslims) will not work. No community can survive without picking up weapons. And swords won’t work. They look good only on stages. So you need to update your weapons. More and more offspring and better weapons can protect you.”
Narsinghanand is further reported to have said that “if any youth worker is prepared to become the Hindu Prabhakaran, then before anyone else, I will give him Rs. 1 crore…if anyone takes on the responsibility to become the Prabhakaran of the Hindus, I will give Rs 1 crore, and if he continues for one year, I will raise at least Rs 100 crore to give.” He gave a clarion call for inciting armed violence against Muslims.
“If I were present in Parliament when PM Manmohan Singh said that minorities have right over national resources, I would have followed Nathuram Godse and shot him six times with a revolver”. The memorandum quoted Dharam Das Maharaj from Bihar having made the statement.
According to the memorandum, “Anand Swarup Maharaj threatened to wage war ‘scarier’ than 1857 if the government does not concede the demand to create a Hindu Rashtra through violence against the minorities.”
He said that in Uttarakhand, he would not allow Christians to celebrate Christmas or Muslims to celebrate their festivals since the state belonged only to Hindus.
Delhi-based advocate and a former BJPO spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay known for his anti-Muslim vitriol at Jantar Mantar in October this year presented a Bhagwa Constitution to Narsinghanand.
Swami Prabodhanand Giri, president of the Hindu Raksha Sena, a right-wing organization based out of Uttarakhand, said, “Get ready to kill. There’s no other way. This is why, like in Myanmar, the police here, the politicians here, the army, and every Hindu must pick up weapons, and we will have to conduct this cleanliness drive (safai abhiyan). There is no solution apart from this.”
“All this is an open violation of provisions of India’s Constitution and various provisions of the law which prohibit spreading of Hate. Moreover, this is not just spreading of Hate; this is a call for violence against Muslims,” the memorandum goes on to say.
“It’s been a week since the Haridwar Sansad began and five days since it ended, all under the state government’s watch. While poison was disseminated from here to the country and indeed all over the globe via social and other media, the administration looked on. We all heard one sentence repeated ad nauseam by a police spokesman ‘Hum nazar banayen hain… uchit karavahi hogi’. (We are keeping an eye on, will take appropriate steps). It’s the mother of all banalities!,” the memorandum said.
“This Sansad has been held under the benign gaze of CM Uttrarakhad Pushkar Singh Dhami, who has recently been seen paying respects to Yati Maharaj,” the memorandum alleged.
“This recent incident has forced every sane Indian to think about where the country is heading. It has also brought to the front the question of whether the present regime will uphold the Constitution of India or will they allow ‘Bhagwa Constitution’ to be forced on them?,” the memorandum commented.
This ‘Sansad’, permitted to be held on the eve of elections in several states, including Uttarakhand and UP, smashes to smithereens the ‘Idea of India’ held by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalama Azad, and Bhimrao Ambedkar. When a state remains silent while hate speech and poison shards are flung at its citizens, it bodes the worst evil for us, the people, who love this land, who are citizens of this country,” the memorandum pointed out.
