Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, religious leader and one of the organisers of and event in Haridwar that saw promotion of anti-Muslim hate speech in December 2021, was arrested on Saturday according to a report by NDTV.
This is the second arrest made in the hate speech conclave case, with Jitendra Narayan Singh Tyagi, who was Waseem Rizvi before he converted, to be the first accused to be arrested on Friday. Rizvi’s arrest came after the Supreme Court directed the Uttarakhand government to submit an affidavit within 10 days of action.
Narsinghanand is among the 10 people named in the FIRs registered against speeches that called for genocide and the use of arms against Muslims.
The dharma sansad, or religious assembly, was held from December 17 to December 19, 2021, and was titled Islamic Bharat Me Sanatan Ka Bhavishya [The Future of Sanatan (Dharma) in Islamic India]. Organised by Narsinghanand, the priest of Dasna Devi temple in Ghaziabad and recently anointed ‘Mahamandaleshwar’ of the Juna Akhara, the event witnessed mass gathering and was attended by speakers like Annapurna Maa, Dharamdas Maharaj from Bihar, Anand Swaroop Maharaj, Sagar Sindhuraj Maharaj, Swami Premanand Maharaj, and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay.
Giving the moto of ‘Shastra Mev Jayate’ to incite armed violence against Muslims, Narsinghanand said, “Economic boycott won’t work. Hindu groups need to update themselves. Swords look good on stage only. This battle will be won by those with better weapons.”
Sadhvi Annapurna, who is currently under the police radar, said, “If you want to finish them off, then kill them… We need 100 soldiers who can kill 20 lakh of them to win this.”
Apart from Muslims, other minorities were also targeted during the event that was streamed live on social media.
Recommended
It received flak from people across the globe. Students and faculty of the Indian Institutes of Management penned a letter, addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to speak up for minorities in the country.
They criticised Modi for his silence on the rising intolerance and added, “There is a sense of fear in our country now – places of worship, including churches in recent days, are being vandalised, and there have been calls to take arms against our Muslim brothers and sisters. All of this is carried out with impunity and without any fear of due process.”
Twitter trended with hashtags #StopIndianMuslimGenocide, #StopPersecutingIndianChristians, and #StopPrsectingDalits, as people condemned the act.