“India is because of us”: Right-wing Hindu groups make inflammatory speeches in Burari

19 April, 2022

On 3 April, at Delhi’s Burari Ground, a Hindu mahapanchayat was organised by Preeth Singh from the Save India Foundation and Pinky Chaudhary from the Hindu Raksha Dal. Their main demands were for an equal education law, a conversion control law, the Uniform Civil Code, a law to control undocumented immigration, and others. The event was attended by Suresh Chavhanke, the editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News, and Yati Narsinghanand, a priest from the Dasna Devi temple, among others. Both Chavhanke and Narsinghanand made inflammatory speeches at the event. Towards the end of the programme, a few journalists were manhandled by the crowd.

The police then took the journalists away to the police station in a PCR van, as a protective measure. However, members of the crowd who had perpetrated the assault were left alone by the police. The police filed a case against the journalist Meer Faisal and the news portal Article 14 for making “statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes.” The Delhi Police also tweeted that a first information report was filed against the organisers for holding an event without permission and making provocative speeches.