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Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati
Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati is hate-mongering, Islamophobic Hindu militant and priest of Dasna Devi temple in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh state. Saraswati claims to have received his education from Russia and worked in London.
He is known for his genocidal speeches against Muslims and Islam. His videos and words reach millions on social media, spawning an army of right-wing followers.
Since he became the head priest of Desna temple, he restricted entry of Muslims and had a board installed with the message “this temple is a holy place for Hindus, entry of non-Hindus are restricted.” Despite being from Ghaziabad, his connections with the BJP leaders and blatant anti-Islamic speeches has helped him cement his influence in Delhi’s overground and underground Hindutva networks.
In 2021, Saraswati, during a press conference in New Delhi, made derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammad. Following the hate speech and massive pressure from the Muslim community, Delhi police booked him under various charges for hurting religious sentiments.
Saraswati made numerous hate speeches against Muslims and instigated Hindutva militants in Delhi before February 23, 2020, culminating in a pogrom in which 53 people were killed, mostly Muslims.
In his hate speeches, while referring to the protestor, mostly Muslims, who had been protesting the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), he said:
“I appeal to all you young people, these Muslims who keep coming out [on the streets], they should find out what will happen to them the day we come out. And I would like to tell Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, please don’t worry, we are all with you. You have brought the CAA, now bring the National Register of Citizens and after that put a stop to the population of the ‘katuon’. If these swine increase their numbers, they will spread filth, so to save this country from filth and dirt, please bring a law to stop their population, we will support you,” he told a crowd on December 25, 2019.
“They (Muslims) thought they can increase their population and capture the country. But Modi ji and Amit Shah have brought this law and smashed their dream. I urge them not to step back but go forward with NRC, uniform civil code and then a population control law,” he said in a another speech before the riots.
His Desna temple attracted national headlines after a disciple of Saraswati thrashed a 12-year-old Muslim boy who went inside the temple to drink water.
In April 2021, Narsinghanand came to Delhi, addressed a press conference and used abusive language against Prophet Mohammad and Islam. He calls the former president of India, APJ Abdul Kalam, a ‘jihadi’ and laments the fact that India’s Muslims were not expelled or exterminated at the time of partition. The same month, the World Hindu Council of America (Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, or VHPA) announced they would be organizing a series of religious discourses to celebrate the Hindu festival of Chaitra Navratri. These events were scheduled to run from April 13-21, with Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati as the featured speaker. The event was later cancelled after public outcry in the US.
In various speeches, he has called Muslims “demons”, threatens to “eliminate” them and says he is striving to create an India “free of Islam”.
In September 2021, police in Uttar Pradesh state registered three cases against him for insulting women after a video of him describing female politicians as mistresses of their male counterparts went viral.
Between December 17-19, 2021, Saraswati was co-organiser of a dharma sansad (Hindu Religious Parliament) in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, where Hindu Supremacist speakers and monks not only painted Muslims as a violent threat to Hindus, but asserted that the only solution was to convert India into a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation), arm Hindus and kill Muslims.
“If a Muslim becomes the prime minister of India, in the next 20 years, 50% of all of you will change your religion…40% of Hindus will be murdered. Ten percent of Hindus will give their sisters and daughters to Muslims, will live in refugee camps or abroad. This is the future. If you want to change this future, then become men. Become men. Who is a man? He who has a weapon in his hand…The amount of man a woman bears for her husband and mangalsutra is the love a man bears for his weapons,” Yati said at the dharm sansad.
He was also among a number of speakers who used anti-Muslim film The Kashmir Files as a communal tool. Narsinghanand said, “For those who don’t want Hindus and Muslims to fight, did you watch The Kashmir Files…they [Muslims] should leave their women and properties behind and drown in the Indian Ocean. You [Muslims] have only this path left.”
Narsinghanand has been linked with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) machinery in the past, saying on the record that Yogi Adityanath had intervened when he was to be booked under the Goonda Act, and ‘saved him’. Ghaziabad SSP Pawan Kumar who had recommended that he be booked under the Goonda Act has, as of April 2, 2022, been suspended; according to the additional chief secretary (information) Navneet Sehgal, this was done on Adityanath’s direction. He is also associated with many other Hindu supremacist BJP leaders including Giriraj Singh and Kapil Mishra.
Some of his controversial statements:
“Eat those who eat the cow. Buy the best weapons you can. Be ready to kill. We are in the midst of civil war with Muslims.”
“Those we call Muslims in our current era were called demons in earlier eras.”
“We cannot find words enough to praise Nathuram Godse ji. I consider Veera Savarkar ji and Nathuram Godse ji as my biggest heroes.”
“Muslims around the world are celebrating because a Hindu lion has been killed and all our homes are mourning. I am telling each one of those bastards (Muslims), if I don’t make you mourn the way Kamlesh Tiwari’s house is mourning today, then I am not my father’s son. As long as I am alive I will use weapons. I am telling each and every Muslim, we will eradicate Islam from the country one day.”
References:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-59952851
https://thewire.in/communalism/delhi-riots-conspiracy-anti-muslim-cleric-yati-narsinghanand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygtOpkr52eU
https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1370595248284438533
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygtOpkr52eU