DEHRADUN: Video of anti-minority comments made by participants at a three-day Dharma Sansad in Haridwar evoked widespread outrage and condemnation, following which the Uttarakhand Police registered a case on Thursday evening.
Several seers made inflammatory speeches at the Dharma Sansad, held from December 17 to 19, and called for killing members of the minority community. Trinamool Congress national spokesman Saket Gokhale and local resident Gulbahar Khan lodged separate complaints in this regard at Jwalapur police station in Haridwar.
“A case has been registered in the matter and the investigation is on,” said Rajendra Kathait, in-charge of Jwalapur P.S. The case has been registered under IPC Section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.)
According to information available, controversial former chief of Shia Waqf Board of UP, Waseem Rizvi, who recently converted to Hinduism and became Jitendra Narayan Singh Tyagi, has been named in the FIR. Other names, if any, were not known till late evening.
The ‘Dharam Sansad’ was organised by Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, head priest of a temple in Ghaziabad who has several cases registered against him. At the religious event, he called for war against Muslims and urged Hindus to take up weapons to prevent a Muslim becoming prime minister in 2029.
“The war will be won by those with better weapons. Shashtramev jayate (Let weapons win),” he said. Narsinghanand also made the audience take a pledge stating, “We will die for our dharma and, if need be, we will kill for it.”
Dharamdas Maharaj, a seer from Patna, targeted former PM Manmohan Singh, saying “I wish I was an MP there holding a revolver; I would have become Nathuram Godse and pumped all the six bullets into him inside Parliament”.
A similar pledge to making India a “Hindu Rashtra” and to “fight, die and, if needed, kill” was taken at another event organised by the Hindu Yuva Vahini’s Delhi wing on Sunday.
Call against Christmas
At the Dharma Sansad, some of the seers also warned Haridwar district administration against allowing Christmas celebrations in hotels and commercial establishments in the district.
In a veiled threat, Anand Swaroop Maharaj of Sambhavi Dhaam said if people and hotels in Haridwar celebrated Christmas, then they would be responsible for their properties. He warned to “wage a war far scarier than the 1857 revolt”.
However, police assured hoteliers and restaurant owners of maintaining law order.