On April 3, a Hindu Mahapanchayat Anti-Muslim Hate Speech event took place in Burari, Delhi without the permission of the police. During the event, at least five journalists, including a woman were assaulted. One Muslim journalist was beaten up because of his religious identity and two others were detained. Yati Narsinghanand, the head priest of the Dasna Devi temple in Ghaziabad who was arrested last year in December for making provocative speeches against Muslims in Haridwar, was the chief speaker at the event. He is infamously known for outrageous fearmongering about the possibility of a “Hindu-less” India in the future.
Narsinghanand did not seem to relent this time either, putting forth even more shocking and baseless “evidence” for that claim. He stated, for example, that by 2029, India will have a non-Hindu prime minister and that 50 percent of Hindus in 20 years will convert if a Muslim were to become the prime minister of India. Moreover, he claimed that 40 percent of the Hindus will be killed and the remaining 10 percent would surrender their daughters and sisters to Muslims, and end up in refugee camps or abroad.
All of these statements were supposedly based on mathematical calculations. But it is clear how people who are hellbent on spreading misinformation can view any kind of data as being skewed in favor of their hate-inducing agenda. Even though statistically in the last 60 years, the population of Muslims has risen considerably and that of Hindus decreased, by no means does it imply that the Muslim population will surpass that of Hindus. The fluctuating figures simply cannot be used to explain a surge of the
Muslim population is so huge that it overtakes the Hindu population in India in the coming future.
In his speech, Narsinghanand cited these “facts” to urge Hindus to produce more children, lest the country becomes “Hindu-less”. He also exhorted the use of violence and taking up of arms in the name of religion. According to him, being armed is the true identity of a man. And producing more children, training them to fight is how the future of Hindus can be salvaged.
Taking a communal spin on statistics, turning that into propaganda and feeding the rhetoric to a mindlessly frenzied mob is all it takes for violence and hate to erupt. The chief priest who is out on bail, is only bound to incite more hate and fire up biased crowds through his false claims if he remains unfettered. Another Dharma Sansad (religious assembly) is already in the works which will be held in the Mathura-Govardhan region from August 12 to August 14. It is long past time for Hindus to come together and stop this hate before it is allowed to spread even further.
[The content has been provided by the Voices of Peace team in India. The views expressed are their own.]
