News Analysis India

Tag: Dharma Sansad

  • Haridwar seers to move Supreme Court to have their say in Dharma Sansad ‘hate speech’ case

    By PTI

    DEHRADUN: A group of Haridwar seers Tuesday decided to move the Supreme Court to apprise it of the “factual” speeches made by participants in the last month’s Dharma Sansad in the holy city.

    The decision came amid allegations that some participants had made hate speeches against Muslims.

    Swami Darshan Bharti, a core committee member of the group, who attended the meeting on Tuesday said a public interest lawsuit will be filed soon in the apex court with a plea that they should be heard.

    Denying that hate speeches were delivered against Muslims at the Dharma Sansad, Bharti said, “We have nothing against Muslims. The speeches made at the event were against Islamist Jihad.”

    Meanwhile, the group also decided to go ahead with its “Pratikar Yagya” (revenge ceremony) in Haridwar on January 16 in protest against the FIRs lodged against participating seers at the Dharma Sansad held between December 17 and 19 in Haridwar.

    “We have also decided to strongly raise the issue of banning the entry of Muslims in the Har ki Pairi and Panch Puri Nagar Panchayat area of Haridwar in the near future,” Bharti said.

  • Hate speech row: Second FIR lodged in Dharma Sansad case

    By PTI

    DEHRADUN: A second FIR has been lodged against 10 persons in connection with a Dharma Sansad held in Haridwar where hate speeches were allegedly delivered by some participants against Muslims.

    The second FIR in the case was lodged at Jwalapur police station in Haridwar on Sunday on the basis of a complaint lodged by Nadeem Ali, a resident of the area, said senior sub-inspector of Jwalapur Nitesh Sharma.

    Ten persons named in the second FIR are the event’s organiser Yati Narasimhanand Giri, Jitendra Narayan Tyagi formerly known as Waseem Rizvi, Sindhu Sagar, Dharamdas, Parmananda, Sadhvi Annapurna, Anand Swaroop, Ashwini Upadhyay, Suresh Chahwan and Prabodhanand Giri, he said.

    The FIR was lodged at Jwalapur police station and transferred to the city police station where the first FIR in connection with the case was lodged, the official said.

    A Special Investigation Team was also constituted on Sunday to probe the case.

    The BJP government in Uttarakhand is under tremendous pressure for acting against those who delivered the hate speeches against Muslims at the Dharma Sansad held in Haridwar from December 16-19.

    Muslims held protest marches in Dehradun and Haridwar on Friday and Saturday demanding immediate arrest of those who delivered the provocative speeches at the Sansad.

  • Dharma Sansad: TMC backs lawyers, seeks SC to take suo moto cognizance of hate speeches allegedly calling for genocide of Muslims

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: The All India Trinamool Congress came out in support of the letter written by the lawyers urging the Supreme Court to take a suo moto cognizance of recent hate speeches made at a Dharma-Sansad.

    TMC MP Mahua Moitra took to her official Twitter handle on Monday, to come out in support of the letter signed and sent by 76 prominent SC lawyers urging for an immediate suo-moto cognizance of the hate speeches.

    Moitra urged Supreme Court to pay heed to the letter written by lawyers urging collectively for taking suo moto cognizance of recent hate speech. “No room for inaction. Wake up. Please”, she wrote in the same tweet made on Monday tagging the letter of SC lawyers.

    The lawyers pointed out the two separate events organsied between December 17 and 20, in Delhi by Hindu Yuva Vahini and Haridwar by Yati Narsinghanad in which the hate speeches consisting of open calls for genocide of Muslims in order to achieve ethnic cleansing were made.

    The lawyers have named the nine persons, namely Yati Narsinghanad Giri, Sagar Sindhu Maharaj, Dharamendra Maharaj, Premanand Mahraj, Sadhavi Annapurna alias Pooja Shakun Pandey, Swami Anand Swaroop, Ashwani Upadhay, Suresh Chavhanke, and Swami Prabodhananad Giri as guilty for hate speeches in the letter, addressed to the Supreme Court.

    The lawyers said in the letter that events and speeches delivered at Delhi and Haridwar were not mere hate speeches but amount to an open call for the murder of an entire community. In view of the seriousness and gravity of the speeches, the lawyers urged the SC to take action against the named guilty persons under various sections of the Indian Penal Code(IPC).

    The letter has been signed by prominent lawyers of the Supreme Court including Anjana Prakash (former judge Patna High Court), Dushyant Dave, Salman Khurshid, Prashant Bhushan, Raju Ramchanadran, Huzefa Ahmadi, Vrinda Grover, Harin Raval, and others

  • Dharma Sansad: Left outfits protest against attacks on minorities

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Thousands of people, owing allegiance to the CPI(ML) Liberation, the AISA, and the AICCTU, on Monday staged a demonstration outside the Uttarakhand Bhawan, here, against the hate speech made recently against the people of the minority community.

    The protesters demanded the arrest of the people, who were allegedly involved in making inflammatory speeches and instigating the people to target the minority people, and the immediate resignation of the Uttarakhand chief minister.

    Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, while addressing the protesters, said that those far-right individuals and organizations, backed by BJP, are playing communal card to divide the nation.

    Equating the Dharma-Sansad- that was organized from December 17 to 20 in Utarrakhand with Nazi Germany’s ‘Final Solution’, Bhattacharya said: ” The Uttarakhand hate speech assembly that called upon the people for the genocide of Muslim community is similar to the act of Nazi German’s  ‘Final Solution’. 

    He underscored the need for the democratic forces to come together to ensure that fascist forces are thrown out of power.

    He said that from Haridwar to Delhi and Raipur to Udupi, the Sangh- brigade is bent upon instigating communal violence ahead of the coming state elections. He made a call to the people of the country to foil the nefarious designs.

    The Left-associated people protesting outside the Uttarakhand Bhawan also sought the resignation of Uttarakhand CM taking moral responsibility for what happened at the Dharma-Sansad against a particular community.

    N Sai Balaji-president of the All India Students Association (AISA) demanded the immediate arrest of all the hate-mongers. He lambasted the BJP government for maintaining stony silence over such inflammatory calls against a particular community at an assembly organized as Dharma-Sansad.

  • Shameful that no arrest made for hate speeches made at Haridwar Dharma Sansad: Gehlot

    The Congress leader said the Supreme Court should take cognisance of the matter and initiate action.

  • Martina Navratilova reacts to Hindutva leaders’ hate speech video targeting minorities in India

    By Online Desk

    Tennis legend Martina Navratilova on Twitter reacted to the Hindutva groups’ “hate speech” video that had gone viral.

    The 18-time singles Grand Slam champion retweeted a video of Hindutva groups taking a pledge to “fight, die and if required, kill” in order to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra.

    A concerned Navratilova asked, “What is going on?!?”

    What is going on?!? https://t.co/PaUPY2mfsp
    — Martina Navratilova (@Martina) December 22, 2021
    Which led to a discussion of ‘rising religious intolerance in India’.

    Renowned journalist Rana Ayyub who joined the conversation, said, “Prelude to a genocide. World leaders will be complicit in looking the other way.”

    One of the users slammed Ayyub and said, “Few people are as divisive and prejudiced as you, Ms Ayyub. You keep your mouth shut.”

    Reacting to the comment Navratilova wrote, “Just another man telling a woman to keep her mouth shut. F… off…”

    Just another man telling a woman to keep her mouth shut. F… off…
    — Martina Navratilova (@Martina) December 23, 2021
    Following this, another user pointed out that the three-day event held in Haridwar was filled with such “hateful speeches”.

    For which the former world number one commented, “That’s just awful…”

    When another user informed the former tennis champion of another such event in Haridwar, which went on for three days with hateful speeches, Navratilova said, “That’s just awful…”

    ‘Is India still a democracy’: Opposition leaders slam ‘hate speech conclave’

    Several Opposition leaders, including those from the Congress and the TMC, on Thursday condemned what they said was a “hate speech conclave” held in Haridwar recently and called for strict action against those involved.

    All-India Trinamool Congress national spokesman Saket Gokhale demanded immediate action against the organisers and speakers of the Dharma Sansad held recently in Haridwar, where “hate speeches” were allegedly made against Muslims.

    Gokhale lodged a complaint in this connection at the Jwalapur police station in Haridwar district, asking the Station House Officer to register an FIR within 24 hours.

    At the event, several speakers allegedly made inflammatory and provocative speeches, calling for the killing of people from the minority community.

    Held at Ved Niketan Dham in Haridwar from December 17-20, the Dharma Sansad was organised by Yati Narasimhanand Giri of the Juna Akhada, who is already under police scanner for making hate speeches and inciting violence against Muslims.

    Amit Shah’s praise for Narendra Modi a joke, says Martina Navratilova

    Earlier in October, Navratilova also called Amit Shah’s praise for Narendra Modi a joke.

    Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “democratic leader”, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said even his critics will agree that the Union Cabinet has never functioned in such a democratic manner as it is functioning in the Modi government.

    This comment by the Home Miniter did not go down well with tennis legend Martina Navratilova. “And for my next joke…” she tweeted on Sunday night in reply to Shah’s eulogy of Modi as “India’s most democratic leader”.

    Along with the tweet, she added an emoticon for astonishment and another that resembles a clown.

    And for my next joke … https://t.co/vR7i5etQcv
    — Martina Navratilova (@Martina) October 10, 2021
    Rejecting allegations that Modi is an autocratic leader, Shah, in an interview to SANSAD TV, said that he has not seen a “patient listener” like the prime minister, who gives importance to all worthy suggestions given by anyone irrespective of their designation or position in the hierarchy.

    Shah had said Modi does not hesitate in taking political risks for decisions that are in national interest, and at times has taken bitter decisions for the welfare of the nation.

    (With Inputs From PTI)