Jaipur: On June 20, Navin Choudhary, a 25-year-old resident of Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan posted a video on Instagram about the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The video, posted to the page ‘Jhunjhunu Express’, which Choudhury runs and uses to focus on local issues, shows a playground in Jhunjhunu where on one side children appear to be engaged in sporting activities, while on the other, another group of children are engaged in an RSS exercise.
“See. What I’m going to show you today…You can see these two groups of children. The future of both is like an empty page. But do you know what the difference is? One group, out of these two, is being taught to sweat on the ground, to bring medals for the country and to make the tricolour proud,” Choudhary is heard saying in the video in Hindi.
“On the other side, at the same time the seed of religion and hate is being sowed in innocents. They are being taught to fight among themselves. Now you yourself think, the kid who is sweating on the ground will take the country forward. But the one in whom the seed of hate is being sown, what will he do for the country in the future?” Choudhary says in the video.
‘They dragged me into the car like some terrorist and rained blows on me’
Choudhary posted the video on the evening of June 20. The Rajasthan police reached his house on the morning of June 21 and took him to the Jhunjhunu Kotwali police station.
“On Sunday (June 21) morning, I started getting threat calls from people associated with the RSS and the police to delete the video. Later, the police reached my home with four to five cars. They dragged me into the car like some terrorist and rained blows on me while we were on the way to the Kotwali police station. I was actually abducted by the police,” Choudhary told The Wire on June 22.
“At the station, a police officer whom I couldn’t recognise told me ‘What illusion are you living in? You mosquitoes and flies will keep doing this, we will unfurl the saffron flag one day in this country’,” alleged Choudhary.
Choudhary alleged that he was kept inside a small room, his phone was confiscated and till evening he was not allowed to talk to anyone or ask for help.
“In the evening, I managed to access a phone and call for help. I have a kidney stone and was feeling ill. When they couldn’t find any pretext to arrest me, I was taken into preventive custody in the evening. They made me sign documents and I spent the night at the police station. I got bail today,” said Choudhary.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
