Hate for the other, not love for the brother motivated Mahapanchayat’s key speakers

Delhi police stopped an event last week that discussed the Nuh violence. The three main speakers had a hardline Hindutva ideology and made anti-Muslim comments

Last week, the Delhi police stopped a Hindu mahapanchayat organised at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, to discuss the July 31 communal violence in Nuh after alleged hate speeches against Muslims were made by the speakers, police officers aware of the matter said. Yati Narsinghanand, the controversial head priest of Ghaziabad’s Dasna Devi temple, were among the speakers for which the police gave “verbal permission”, according to the organisers. The police, however, denied giving permission to hold the event.

A screengrab of the Hindu mahapanchayat from a purported video shared by the Hindu Sena. (HT Photo)

The mahapanchayat was organised under the aegis of the All India Sanatan Federation. Apart from Yati Narsinghanand and Hindu Sena chief Vishnu Gupta, the controversial leader of Hindu Raksha Dal, Bhupedra Tomar alias Pinky Chaudhary, was also among the speakers. However, Chaudhary could not deliver his speech as the event was declared over by the police, Gupta said.

A purported video clip of Yati’s speech at the event was circulated on social media. In the alleged video clip, the head priest can be heard saying that while the population of Hindus is decreasing, the number of Muslims is increasing in India. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the video clip.

Who are the men who were stopped from speaking?

Vishnu Gupta

A day after he said that the Partition would not be complete till “all Muslims leave the country”, Vishnu Gupta told HT that he believed in what he said. “It wasn't hate speech in my opinion,” Gupta said.

Born in Uttar Pradesh's Etah village in 1984, Gupta attended a school run by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and witnessed the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992. This was a “turning point in my life,” he said, adding that it instilled the "feeling of nationalism" in him. In Delhi, he went on to attend Dyal Singh college where his political journey began by joining Shiv Sena's youth wing but it was rather "soft" for his beliefs.

In 2008, he joined Vishwa Hindu Parishad's youth wing Bajrang Dal. Later, he founded his own organisation, the Hindu Sena, because he wanted to “speak more freely” and organise events that the former organisation wouldn't allow. He claimed to be more “aggressive” than what he was “allowed to be” at the time. The Hindu Sena has since grown to over 600,000, Gupta claims, and attributes this to social media.

This is not the first time Gupta has made comments against Muslims. At a similar event in 2021 at Jantar Mantar, he and members of his organisation were arrested for defacing the Akbar Road signboard and writing “Hemu Vikramaditya Marg” over it.

At the latest event, Gupta also criticised the Haryana police and called for a CRPF camp to instil fear amongst “jihadis”. “If police or administration believe that I have made any such speech, they are free to book me,” he said about his latest statements. Gupta shared his speech on his WhatsApp status last week.

Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati

It has been nearly 26 years since Deepak Tyagi has been more popularly known as Yati Narsimhanand Saraswati.

Born December 8, 1971, in a farmer’s family at Bulandshahr, Yati says he will continue his fight against “Islamic Jihad” in this life and all others in store for him, as per his beliefs of the Sanatan Dharma.

“I don’t know how many FIRs I have faced since but not a single one is against any of my personal issues. All these have been due to my fighting against the Islamic Jihad. I met a girl from Ghaziabad in 1997 who fell prey to love jihad and was subjected to gangrape. She later committed suicide. It was a life-changing moment for me and then I decided to start my fight,” Yati said. When pressed he did not share details about the woman, or the case.

He said that his grandfather was a freedom fighter. His father, who lived in Meerut, was a union leader. Yati said that he spent eight years in Meerut and Hapur and went to Moscow, Russia in 1995, where he studied for a post graduate degree.

“I stayed in Moscow for about eight years and also visited London several times besides travelling to several European countries. For about eight months I worked at a sales department of an MNC in London. I was back in India in 1997 and thereafter never travelled outside. My passports have been seized by the police in different cases against me,” Yati added.

Citing the “harassment” of police, Yati left his home in 2001 and took ‘sanyas’ under Swami Bhramanand Saraswati’s advice. “After I left home permanently, Swami gave me the name Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati... Thereafter I started Dharm Sansad which aims to fight Islamic jihad,” Yati said.

Yati conducted the first Dharm Sansad in September 2013 despite objections from the then-state government. A second one was held in Haridwar two years later.

He occupied the seat of mahant at the Devi Mandir at Dasna 15 years ago, during which time he put up a board preventing the entry of Muslims into the temple’s premises.

“I think that there is no Hindu organisation as such. There are organisations that have the patronage of a political party and resort to a use-and-throw policy as per their needs. I have no connection with any political party at all. However, I have not lost hope. I will continue my fight in this life and others to follow,” Yati said.

Wasim Rizvi, the former Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board chairman, formally converted to Hinduism at an event in Ghaziabad’s Dasna Devi temple and now goes by the name of Jitendra Narayan Singh Tyagi after he embraced the Sanatan Dharma.

Pinky Chaudhary

Bhupinder Tomar, who is popularly known as Pinky Chaudhary, is the head of the right-wing organisation, Hindu Raksha Dal. In 2014, he and his associates were allegedly involved in an attack on the Aam Aadmi Party’s office at Kaushambi in Ghaziabad.

Tomar, who says he has a hardcore Hindutva agenda, said his “activism” began with his fight against illegal slaughterhouses of Ghaziabad’s Sahibabad, where a large Muslim population resides.

“Those were the times when there was no one to take on such activities like cow slaughtering and our members fought against the slaughterers. We also took on the Muslims who ventured into Hindu localities and harassed women and girls. In those times, there was no concept of ‘Love jihad’. We took on the fight and beat up many such men,” Tomar said.

Born in Bamnoli village of Baghpat, Tomar has been staying at Rajendra Nagar in Ghaziabad for the past 40 years. He schooled at Kendriya Vidyalaya number 2 at Hindon air force base and went on to finish his graduation.

“Initially, I was associated with the Bajrang Dal and worked hard at the ground level. However, many times, my colleagues and I felt neglected and faced hardships on our own. Around 2010, we decided to form the Hindu Raksha Dal. It aims to support our Hindu brothers and their families in time of need,” Tomar said.

His organisation claimed responsibility for the violence on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus in January 2020. The outfit has a presence across the western region of the state of Uttar Pradesh.

“The atmosphere at the JNU was of sloganeering against the country and such people were of the communist mindset. They also harassed and beat up the Hindu students there... We will always fight for Hindutva and will continue to motivate our Hindu brothers. When the opportunity arises, I will also venture into politics to gain more power and strength to carry on our activities... Instead of ‘Sabka saath sabka vikas,’ (roughly: development for all) I believe in ‘Hindu ka saath, Hindu ka vikas.’ (roughly: development for all Hindus) We have nothing to do with Muslims,” Tomar added.

In 2016, he contested the mayoral bypolls of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation and secured the fourth spot. He amassed only 10,571 votes while contesting as an independent candidate. He is reported to have 32 cases booked against him.