Hyderabad: The Shahinayathgunj police here arrested the man who carried the picture of Gandhiji’s killer, Nathuram Godse, during the Sri Ram Navami Shobha Yatra (rally) on March 30. The accused has been identified as Chinta Hema Kumar, 21, a resident of Siddiqnagar in Gachibowli.
According to the police, Kumar carried the photograph of Nathuram, who shot Mahatma Gandhi to dead in public in 1948. A video clip of Kumar holding the photograph and marching in the procession had gone viral and drew wide criticism on social media. The police booked a case under 504 of IPC after the incident and arrested him.
Kumar was produced before a local magistrate and remanded.
In the Ram Navami rally in Hyderabad, suspended Goshamahal BJP MLA Raja Singh also joined the main procession when it passed via Mangalhat. It was there that the portrait of Godse appeared. People who joined Singh’s fringe rally waved photos of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin.
The annual Sri Ram Navami Shobha Yatra here has become a show of strength for Hindutva groups to flex. The procession has also become a launchpad for Hindutva mascot and suspended BJP MLA Raja Singh to release new inflammatory ‘songs’ every year. In 2022, he sang a song degenerating Muslims and threatened to “kick” them out of India if they “don’t chant Ram’s name”. This year was no different.
Raja Singh as a practice has been singing songs and releasing them during the Sri Rama Navami festival each year. One of latest songs, ‘Baap Tu Baap Rahega’, was clearly a dig at the ruling government (or even the cops) for arresting him last year and putting him in the jail under the PD Act after he released a video passing derogatory comments against Prophet Muhammad. He did that in retaliation against the state got allowing comic Munawar Faurqui to hold a show.
The MLA released a few more songs at his mega saffron rally, which were officially uploaded on some Youtube Channels and played during the Shobha Yatra procession. The lyrics this year also mention his PD Act detention following registration of a series of cases for making derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammed in a video and also old cases booked against him for delivering hate speeches. The lyrics goes ‘Jail Ka Taala Tuth Gaya, Baap Tumhara Choot Gaya’.
The song is of 5:10 minutes duration. People who joined Singh’s Hindutva rally waved photos of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, now a beloved Hindutva figure. Raja Singh was eventually booked by the police in different cases after the Ram Navami rally.
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