Yati Narsinghanand. Photo: Twitter

New Delhi: An activist has sought the consent of the Attorney General for India to initiate contempt proceedings against Hindutva leader Yati Narsinghanand for remarks against the constitution and the Supreme Court.

Narsinghanand has recently been in the news for speaking at the Haridwar ‘Dharma Sansad’ that saw calls for a Muslim genocide. A day ago, when Uttarakhand Police made its first arrest in the hate speech case, nabbing Waseem Rizvi who is now known as Jitendra Narayan Tyagi, Narsinghanand was heard saying, “You will all die.”

In a letter to the AG, activist Shachi Nelli has called Narsinghanand’s remarks in an interview to one Vishal Singh, “derogatory.”

The letter states that Narsinghanand was asked of “court proceedings” in the hate speech case when he said, “We have no trust in the Supreme Court of India and the Constitution. The Constitution will consume the 100 crore Hindus of this country. Those who believe in this Constitution will be killed. Those who believe in this system, in these politicians, in the Supreme Court, and in the Army will all die the death of a dog.”

The letter mentions a clip from this conversation in which Narsinghanand says, “When Jitendra Singh Tyagi went by the name Wasim Rizvi and wrote his book, not a single policeman, not one of these ‘hijde’ policeman or politician had the courage to arrest him.”

A clip of the interview was tweeted by journalist Mohammed Zubair.

 

.The letter notes that the comments are “trying to undermine the majesty of the institution and the authority vested in the Supreme Court of India.”

It calls the comments a vile and clear attempt at interfering in the course of justice by means of “abusive rhetoric and baseless attacks on the integrity” of the constitution and courts.

“To permit these remarks to pass unaddressed will be to allow this attempt of lowering the authority of the apex court to succeed, if not wholly then in considerable measure,” the letter adds.

This story first appeared on thewire.in