Home > Profiles > Parvin Togadia
Parvin Togadia
Pravin Togadia is an Indian doctor, cancer surgeon, a strong advocate for Hindu supremacism, and one of the country’s top minority haters. He was the former International Working President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). He is the Current President of Antarashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP).
Togadia was an RSS member in Ahmedabad and a colleague of Narendra Modi. He was drafted into VHP in 1983, and Modi was drafted into the BJP in 1984.
In January 2002, he asked Hindus to cut all relations with Muslims. Later that year, with Togdia at the helm of VHP, the militant group actively organized Gujarat pogrom, targeting Muslim localities. The blood bath left more than two thousand people dead, mostly Muslims.
Togadia and VHP/BJP activists also interfered with treating victims in hospitals, telling doctors whom to treat and whom to turn away. Togadia hailed the conduct of the riots as the “Hindutva laboratory” and said that it would be replicated in Delhi. ”
Togadia, after the December 2002 elections, complained that Modi was garnering all the “credit” for the riots, whereas his men made all the killing.
In 2011, Togadia had called for the beheading of those who converted Hindus to Christianity. In 2014, Togadia gathered his VHP goons outside the house of a Muslim businessman in Gujarat and gave the occupant 48 hours to vacate his home, failing which he asked his followers to take forcible possession of his property.
He threatened Muslims with violence and asked his followers to “go with stones, tyres, and tomatoes” and that there was nothing to fear.
In April 2022, Hindutva leader Manoj Kumar made vile and derogatory remarks against Muslim women at an event in Ahmedabad, Gujarat organised by activist Togadia’s outfit AHP. Around 5,000 trishuls (tridents) were distributed among the people who had gathered at the event.
Togadia and his team have been openly distributing these weapons in various Indian states and encouraging people that this makes them “brave”, and that once armed like this, they become “protectors of the Hindu faith”.
According to Sabrang India, Pravin Togadia is well on his way to revive his 2000’s agenda of militarising Hindu society. The process was documented and analysed by Communalism Combat in 2001 around the time when the Bajrang Dal had undertaken countrywide Trishul Diksha Samarohs. The Bajrang Dal’s trishuls were, “Rampuri knives that can kill, specially crafted to look like a religious symbol”. The original piece may be read here. In 2016, the Bajrang Dal started training its cadres in Uttar Pradesh to use rifles, swords and lathis ostensibly to “protect Hindus”. Now Assam is their top target.
Some of his controversial statements:
“The status of minority [for Muslims] should be withdrawn. The money collected from taxpayers should not be spent [only] on them, it should instead be utilised for the welfare of all poor and needy people.”
“We should have it in us to take the law in our own hands in an area where we are a majority and scare [Muslims],”
“To prevent Muslims from buying properties the government should bring in Disturbed Areas Act to Bhavnagar, which would prevent inter-community sale of immovable property.”
“We won’t let any anti-Hindu or pro-Muslim party rule Delhi. In the coming days, Hindu warriors will overthrow such governments and bring Ramrajya.”
“Within last ten years, we did Ghar Wapsi of more than five lakh Christians and 2.5 lakh Muslims. Our rate of Ghar Wapsi used to be around 15,000 each year. But last year, we have crossed the mark of 40,000, which is excluding the figures of RSS,”
References:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/allys-anti-muslim-comments-embarrass-indias-narendra-modi-n88411
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/church-attack-accused-meets-pravin-togadia/