India: A Hindu monk imprisoned for defaming Gandhi, praising a murderer | Mahatma Gandhi News
At a ceremony to call for the killing of Muslims, Kalicharan Maharaj said Gandhi “destroyed” the country by greeting Nathuram Godse.
Police in India have arrested a Hindu religious leader for using abusive language against Indian President Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and thanking him for killing him.
Gandhi, revered in India as Mahatma (Great Life), was shot and killed by a courageous Hindu during a prayer rally in the Indian capital, 1948.
Hindu organizations had it rebuked Gandhi about showing compassion to Muslims during the partition of India and British colonists in 1947 to India and Pakistan.
Kalicharan Maharaj was arrested in central Madhya Pradesh on Thursday for inciting hatred among religious groups in a statement earlier this month, the Press Trust of India quoted Prashant Agrawal as saying.
According to media reports, Maharaj said “Gandhi destroyed the country … greetings to Nathuram Godse, who killed him”.
He will be arraigned in court after a police investigation. If found guilty, he could face up to five years in prison.
The protesters also demanded the arrest of several Hindu savage leaders who demanded that a the murder of a minority of Muslims at the doorless parliamentary hall, Dharam Sansad, earlier this month in the holy city of Haridwar.
The meeting was attended by one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politicians, according to local media reports.
Police in Uttarakhand state, which is controlled by the BJP on the right, said they were questioning the suspects, but no arrests had been made.
The uprising of Hindu Muslims against Muslims and other minorities intensified when Modi came to power in 2014, and again won the 2019 election.
Muslims make up about 14 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people.
Meanwhile, a group of lawyers has written a letter to the chief justice of India’s Supreme Court, NV Ramana, asking him to take action on a plot to assassinate Muslims.
Lawyers in their letter said “the two recent incidents and allegations … are not just hate speech but are tantamount to calling everyone to death”.
“The speeches of the speakers are a serious threat not only to the unity and integrity of our country but also to the lives of millions of Muslim people,” he said.
On Monday, members of various student unions staged a protest outside Uttarakhand Bhavan’s home in New Delhi against the Haridwar hostility rally.
