UP Deputy CM Backs Hindu Rashtra Call at Right-Wing Event in Lucknow

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak attended an event that called for declaring India a Hindu Rashtra. Seven such resolutions were passed at the event that was organised by a right-wing Hindutva group.

Pathak, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in the state, also addressed the gathering held earlier this week in Lucknow.

The event was organised by the Vishwa Hindu Raksha Parishad (VHRP), a lesser-known Hindutva outfit that was formed last year and has close ties to the saffron party.

Gopal Rai, a social activist and the national president of the VHRP, told The Wire that his outfit was committed to campaigning for declaring India a Hindu nation. References to the attack on tourists in Pahalgam featured on the banners put up by Rai in Lucknow to publicise the Dharm Sansad event.

“Na Batenge, Na Katenge. Dharma Sansad hain Zaroori. Koi dharma pooch kar na mare goli. (We will not be divided. We will not be slaughtered. Dharma Sansad is the need of the hour. So that nobody can shoot us after asking about our religion),” read the banner, pitching for Hindu unity along the lines of the slogan crafted by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath last year.

Addressing the “Bharat Gaurav Sanatan Samman Samaroh,” deputy chief minister Pathak hailed sanatan dharma and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for promoting the religion.

“The fame of Sanatan Dharma is reaching every corner of the world under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi,” said Pathak, a cabinet minister who holds the education, health, family, mother and child welfare departments.

He also congratulated the VHRP and Rai for taking a “remarkable step” in promoting sanatan dharma globally and for their efforts in “uniting people around the world in the spirit of sanatan dharma.” Extending his support to the VHRP’s cause, Pathak promised to work “shoulder to shoulder,” with it.

Seven proposals were passed at the gathering, which was attended by several Hindu seers and Hindutva leaders, including a controversial priest from Ayodhya, Raju Das.

A 'sanatani helpline number' would be set up so that Hindus who live in Muslim populated states, such as West Bengal and Kerala, or basties can reach out for help when they face any problems, said Rai. “We will try to get them immediate help through the local administration or police,” said an office-bearer of the VHRP.

The outfit also vowed to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra and said it would open offices in Muslim areas for the protection of Hindus and their temples. The VHRP would launch a yatra from violence-hit Murshidabad in West Bengal to Jammu and Kashmir and introduce a Sanatan Gaurav Bharat Samman, an award for individuals and groups who work for the cause of Hindutva. They would be selected after a nation-wide survey, said a VHRP source.

The right-wing propaganda theories  of “love jihad” and “land “jihad” will also be on its agenda. The VHRP said it would start awareness campaigns to prevent Hindu girls from falling into romantic relationships with Muslims boys and launch a ‘sanatani sena,’ or a form of citizen army, to check “land jihad.”