By SHINJINEE MAJUMDER & KALIM AHMED
Taking part in the Ram Navami Shobha Yatra in Hyderabad on March 30, suspended BJP MLA T Raja Singh delivered yet another communally charged speech rife with open calls for violence against Muslims. He also sang songs filled with anti-Muslim rhetoric, a custom that he has been following for years. The event this year was jointly organized by Sri Ram Navami Utsav Committee and Sri Ram Yuva Sena, reported The Quint.
The Shobha Yatra was publicized as early as February 7, 50 days before the day of the rally. A Facebook page called टी राजा सिंह – T Raja Singh released the poster with the caption ‘होजाओ तैयार हिन्दुओ’ (‘Get ready Hindus’). According to the poster, the rally would commence from the Akashpuri Hanuman Mandir in Dhoolpet, Hyderabad.
According to a map of the Shobha Yatra route released by the Hyderabad Traffic Police prior to the event, T Raja’s procession (Procession II) met the main procession (I) at Gangabowli X Road. The procession ended at the Hanuman Vyamashala.
A clash between people belonging to two communities reportedly occurred in the Charminar area on the same day. People from one community attacked a few people from another community after people from the latter group came on a bike and shouted slogans on Ram Navami during Ramadan evening prayers. A police statement later revealed that the Ram Navami group changed its route and took a different path, which led to the clash. Police immediately reached the spot and evicted both groups from the area. “We have filed a case against the group for not following the permitted route,” said the police.
The rally also saw portraits of Nathuram Godse, MK Gandhi’s assassin, being waved by participants.
T Raja later issued a clarification on the sighting of Godse’s picture at the Shobha Yatra in a video statement released on his Twitter account. “There were a lot of Ram devotees at the rally. Some brought a poster of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, some brought Maharana Pratap’s poster, and some brought Veer Savarkar’s poster and participated in the rally in full spirit. Somebody brought a poster of Nathuram Godse and the media persons have started tagging (me). I want to tell those media persons that there were lakhs of people at the rally, and I do not know who’s thinking what”. He further asks the media to consider why lakhs of Hindu devotees came out to show their support for an Akhand Hindu Rashtra despite ‘traitor’ Owaisi being at the helm of affairs in a state like Telangana…
This story was originally published in altnews.in. Read the full story here