New Delhi: The militant Hindutva leaders who spoke at the Haridwar Dharma Sansad, where open calls for genocide of Muslims were made, are seen in a video laughing with a police officer, saying “he will be on our side”.
Five of the event participants on December 28, Tuesday filed a first information report (FIR) at the Haridwar police station against maulanas or clerics, who they alleged have been conspiring against Hindus and should be punished, NDTV reported. No FIR was filed though, the police told the news channel.
According to journalist Ashutosh Bhardwaj, the complaint is also against “the Quran, maulvis of Haridwar and other unnamed Muslims”.
The video shows several participants of the Haridwar event – Hindu Raksha Sena’s Prabodhanand Giri, who organised the Dharma Sansad; militant Hindutva leader Yati Narasimhanand; Pooja Shakun Pandey aka “Sadhvi Annapurna”; Anand Swaroop, head of a body named Shankaracharya Parishad, and Waseem Rizwi alias Jitendra Narayan Tyagi. They were seen to be asking police officer Rakesh Kathait to register their FIR, and towards the end of the video, they asked the officer to treat everyone equally and not be biased.
The Dharma Sansad in Haridwar was held on December 17-19.
The Uttarakhand Police registered an FIR against Rizvi, who was the former chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Central Shia Waqf Board, under Section 153A of the IPC (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) related to the statements made at the event.
Two others in the video have also been named in the FIR filed by the Uttarakhand Police in the Haridwar hate speech case.
In the video, Pooja Shakun Pandey is seen to be saying to the police officer, who is holding a copy of their complaint against maulanas: “You should send a message that you are not biased. You are a public officer and you should treat everyone equally. That is what we expect from you. May you always win.”
Yati Narasimhanand, who is standing at the side, says, “Ladka humare taraf hoga (He will be on our side).”
Then everyone in the room burst out laughing, while the police officer smiles and nods sideways.
The videos from the Haridwar event drew sharp criticism from two former service staff chiefs, activists and international personalities, including tennis legend Martina Navratilova.
RTI activist and Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale had tweeted that he has filed a complaint against the organisers and speakers of the event and that, if an FIR is not registered at Jwalapur police station, he will file a plea with a judicial magistrate.
However, those who organised the event and gave the hate speeches maintain that they have done no wrong.
“I am not ashamed of what I have said. I am not afraid of police. I stand by my statement,” Prabodhanand Giri – photographed often with BJP leaders including Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his Uttarakhand counterpart Pushkar Dhami – told NDTV on December 23.
“If you want to finish them off, then kill them [Muslims]… We need 100 soldiers who can kill 20 lakh of them to win this,” Pandey said at the meet.
This story first appeared on thewire.in