JOIN USIt is no surprise that ‘Yati’ Narsinghanand, head priest of Ghaziabad’s Dasna Devi temple, who is out on bail after being booked for hate speech in Haridwar last December, has again resorted to a communal campaign and made provocative remarks on more than one occasion last week. After his December speech, he had been booked in another case in January after he made ‘objectionable’ remarks against “women of a particular community”. In speeches last week, he claimed that “mathematical calculations” had shown that a non-Hindu would become prime minister in 2029 and if that happens, “50% of Hindus would change faith in the next 20 years” and exhorted Hindus to take up arms as well as produce more children to prevent India becoming “Hindu-less”. It is not just that incendiary speeches were made. Several journalists, including a number of Muslim scribes, who were at the spot to cover the proceedings at one such event, were assaulted and heckled.
Narsinghanand has persisted with his vitriolic campaign for many months and no legal action or the prospect of it has deterred him from repeating his offence. He has appealed to the basest communal and divisive sentiments and wielded all staple tools in the extremist Hindutva propaganda like the threat posed by conversions, the need to show the minorities their place and to control them and to protect temples. He has sought to promote a sense of insecurity and siege among what he thinks is the Hindu community and called for armed attacks on Muslims. He is not alone on the platform of hatred and hostility. There are others who are seen standing with him and supporting him. The hateful rhetoric and the call to arms can only be detrimental to peace and harmony and increase strife in the country.
Narsinghanand is being treated with kid gloves by the government. Though he committed an offence when he was on bail, only an FIR has been filed against him and he is still free. He made inflammatory remarks at an event for which the authorities had not granted permission, but he did so with impunity. That shows as much his confidence that the system is loaded in his favour as the failure of the system to deal with people and groups like him. While critics of the Modi government do not easily get bail, those like Narsinghanand get it easily, violate bail conditions and roam freely. There is not much of a dividing line between the fringe which is blamed for these speeches and the core. This is majoritarian aggression as never seen before, and with sanction from the State. This will imperil not just the rule of law but the future of the country.