By IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 31 August 2014: A human rights body called for the arrest of Bharatiya Janata Party MP Yogi Adityanath for making communally sensitive statements against Muslims in a TV interview where he blamed the Muslim community for instigating riots.
Citizens for Democracy, in a press statement, has pointed at Adityanath, Lok Sabha Member of BJP from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, for casting aspersions on the loyalty and integrity of the Muslim community, going so far as to even publicly give a veiled threat, saying “if you want to live here, you will have to respect Indian culture and traditions. You cannot have your body here but mind in Pakistan.”
In ‘Aap Ki Adalat,’ a talk-show hosted by Rajat Sharma on India TV news channel, Adityanath publicly declared, “where there are more than 35 percent [of Muslims], there is no place for non-Muslims.”
Giving justification for his provocative speeches in the past, in which he said if a Hindu is killed 10 Muslims will be killed in retaliation, Adityanath, who was last week appointed head of BJP’s election campaign team for Assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, said that “If I have a mala (rosary) in one hand, I also carry a bhala (javelin) in the other. As a sanyasi, I can also punish the evil elements,” showing he had no qualms in taking the law into his own hands.
According to N.D. Pancholi, General Secretary of Citizens for Democracy, the organization which has called for Adityanath’s arrest, “All the aforesaid statements made by Yogi Adityanath are criminal offences amounting to generate hatred and enmity against the Muslim community.” The advocate and human rights activist Mr. Pancholi further added that “He [Adityanath] is straight away liable to be prosecuted under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code.”
In response to Adityanath’s statement, the organization reminded the MP that “As per the Indian Constitution nobody is entitled to take the law in his own hands in order to teach “other side” in the so called “language they understand” or use “bhala’” (javelin) in retaliation to punish the “supposedly” evil elements.”
Pancholi said that it was obvious that the BJP MP is trying to polarize communities for electoral gains in view of the forthcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh to serve narrow political interest for his party, the BJP. He hoped for Home Minister Rajnath Singh to “rise above the narrow sectarian political interests” and take immediate action against Yogi Adityanath by arresting and prosecuting him as per law in the interest of maintaining peace and communal harmony in the country.
