By Omar Rashid
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.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.