Last month, Yati Ramswaroopanand Giri sparked outrage with his impassioned speech at the Dehradun Press Club, where he called for violence against Muslims, leading to the filing of an FIR.
The Dalanwala police had taken suo motu action against Ramswaroopanand for promoting enmity and public mischief, saying this action was in line with guidelines issued by the Supreme Court against hate speech incidents. But days later, within a week of the FIR being registered, the seer again called for violence against Muslims.
In a video of the event that took place between September 14 and 18 at a Ghaziabad farmhouse, the seer, who is a disciple of Yati Narsinghanand and hails from the Shiv Shakti Dham in Ghaziabad’s Dasna, could be seen asking a large crowd to arm themselves against Muslims.
So far, no action has been taken against him over his latest hate speech. Kavi Nagar assistant commissioner Abhishek Srivastavam, in charge of the area where the event took place, told Newslaundry that he was unsure if any action was taken in the matter. He did not respond to follow-up questions.
In April last year, a bench of Supreme Court Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna directed states to suo motu register FIRs on hate speech incidents and proceed against offenders without waiting for someone to file a complaint. The directive also said that any hesitation on the part of police officers to abide by the order would be viewed as contempt.
Notably, Ramswaroopanand’s hate speeches follow the public outcry over Yati Narsinghanand’s statement calling for the burning of an effigy of Prophet Mohammad instead of Ravana on Dussehra. An FIR has been lodged against Narsinghanand.
Anti-Muslim remarks on social media, events
On September 10, at his Dehradun Press Club address, Ramswaroopanand had asked Hindus to keep a weapon with themselves and learn to use it to save the women in their family. He had also said that Muslims had committed atrocities in Bangladesh, and Uttarakhand too would become like the neighbouring country.
At the event at Sagar Farmhouse in Govindpuram of Ghaziabad, between September 14 and 18, Ramswaroopanand purportedly incited the crowd with a similar narrative.
“Just think, when a crowd of thousands of Muslims come with weapons to your house, how will you save your family and children?” asked Ramswaroopanand. “How will you save yourself? You too have to keep good weapons in your house and learn how to use them to protect your family.”
The event was a kalash yatra (religious procession) of another seer, Acharya Arun Kaushik. But when Newslaundry reached out to Kaushik, he said he wanted to “distance himself” from Ramswaroopanand’s comments and added that someone else had invited the seer to the event.
Meanwhile, Ramswaroopanand’s social media timeline has been rife with posts with derogatory remarks against Muslims (see here, and here).
In one of the tweets, where he shared a clip of Narsinghanand’s controversial speech, he wrote: “Muhammad’s effigy will now be burnt instead of Ravanas.”
The seer has also been posting photos, videos, and tweets to demand that the Bangladesh-India ongoing cricket series be stopped. In one of the videos he posted on X, he said that the Muslim cricketers from Bangladesh should not be welcomed in Uttar Pradesh and also raised questions at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
In November last year, Ramswaroopanand led a delegation of seers to write letters in blood to the Uttarakhand CM demanding a “jihad-free Uttarakhand” and has repeatedly made similar demands.
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