Notorious for making intemperate remarks against Muslims, Yati Narsinghanand, the head priest of the Dasna Devi temple, stoked yet another controversy on Sunday with his comment that "50 per cent of Hindus will convert" in 20 years if a Muslim became the prime minister of India. Addressing a 'Hindu Mahapanchayat' for which the Delhi administration had not granted permission, he also exhorted Hindus to take up arms to fight for their existence. The Mahapanchayat was organised at Burari grounds here by Preet Singh of Save India Foundation. This is the same group which had earlier held a similar controversial event at Jantar Mantar in the national capital, where anti-Muslim slogans were raised.
Singh was arrested by the Delhi Police for making a hate speech at the Jantar Mantar event. Several other Hindu supremacist leaders also attended the Sunday event.
Narsinghanand is currently on bail in connection with the Haridwar hate speech case. “Only in 2029 or in 2034 or in 2039 a Muslim will become the prime minister. Once a Muslim will become the PM, 50 per cent Hindus will convert, 40 per cent will be killed and the remaining 10 per cent will either live in refugee camps or in other countries in the next 20 years.
"This will be the future of the Hindus. If you want to avoid this future, then become a man and take up arms," Narsinghanand is seen saying in a video of the Mahapanchayat which is being circulated on social media. PTI could not independently check the veracity of the video. Narsinghanand has been involved in hate speech cases in the past as well. An FIR was lodged in Haridwar against him for making highly provocative speeches against Muslims at the “Dharma Sansad”, which was held in the holy town between December 17 and 19 last year.
In the Sunday Mahapanchayat, Narsinghanand went on to assert that Hindus should stop "begging" for their rights. “For long I have seen Hindus begging for their demands to be fulfilled. But I have not seen even a single demand of any Hindu being met. We got Ram Janmabhoomi not by begging but through the court's intervention, so stop being a beggar,” Narsinghanand said in the video clip. Meanwhile, a few Delhi based journalists, who had gone to cover the event, were allegedly manhandled there. Police, however, denied the claim that they were detained.
Sharing a tweet by one of the journalists who alleged that two young Muslim men from the media were assaulted by a Hindu mob at the Mahapanchayat and were also taken into custody, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Usha Rangnani took to Twitter to say nobody was detained. "Some of the reporters, willingly, on their own free will, to evade the crowd which was getting agitated by their presence, sat in PCR Van stationed at the venue and opted to proceed to Police Stn for security reasons. No one was detained.
Due police protection was provided," she stated in the tweet. "For spreading misinformation, due necessary action shall be initiated against such persons," she tweeted.
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