For Immediate Release: Under Pressure, World Hindu Council of America (VHPA) Cancels Events with Hate-Mongering Hindu Extremist Leader
For Immediate Release:
Under Pressure, World Hindu Council of America (VHPA) Cancels Events with Hate-Mongering Hindu Extremist Leader
Press Contact: Nikhil Mandalaparthy, Hindus for Human Rights Advocacy Director, nikhil@hindusforhumanrights.org
Within two days of a public petition and awareness campaign launched by Hindus for Human Rights, the World Hindu Council of America (Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, or VHPA) has cancelled their virtual events featuring Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, a hate-mongering and Islamophobic Hindu extremist leader in India who has called for the “eradication” of Islam and Muslims in India.
Links:
Hindus for Human Rights’ petition on Change.org.
Hindus for Human Rights’ co-founder Sunita Viswanath’s op-ed in The Wire: What VHP America's Invitation to a Hatemonger, Now Rescinded, Tells Us About Sangh Parivar
Earlier this week, the World Hindu Council of America (Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, or VHPA) announced they would be organizing a series of religious discourses to celebrate the Hindu festival of Chaitra Navratri. These events were scheduled to run from April 13-21, with Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, a hate-mongering, Islamophobic, and violent Hindu extremist, as the featured speaker.
Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati is chief priest of the Dasna Devi Temple in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. He is also the leader of a Hindu extremist organization called Hindu Swabhiman (Hindu Self-Respect).
Saraswati has made several notorious statements calling for violence and genocide against Muslims, publicly declaring that "Islam should be eradicated from Earth ... all Muslims should be eliminated.” Just last month, a 14-year-old Muslim boy was violently assaulted for drinking water at Saraswati’s temple in Ghaziabad -- an act which Saraswati praised. Saraswati has even encouraged violence even against the revered Indian saint Shirdi Sai Baba, and has publicly praised Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin.
For decades, the VHPA has continually tried to downplay its links to Hindu extremists in India. Under fire from a recent Al Jazeera investigation about Hindu nationalist organizations in the United States receiving federal Covid-19 relief funds, VHPA leaders have argued that they are a benign community organization serving American Hindus, and that they are not formally affiliated with Hindu extremist groups in India.
VHPA's invitation of Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati is just another example proving the deep ties that exist between Hindu nationalist organizations in the United States and Hindu extremist leaders in India.
In response to VHPA’s announcement, Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) launched an online petition and public awareness campaign on April 12th, which called upon “our fellow Americans and all people of conscience to stand up to Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) and all hate perpetuated in the name of religion.” HfHR also raised this issue at a number of forums, including at a briefing for members of Congress on April 14th. HfHR’s coverage of this issue was shared by figures such as Rutgers University professor Audrey Truschke and Indian journalist Siddharth Varadarajan. By the evening of April 14th, the VHPA announced that the events with Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati had been “cancelled.”
The VHPA’s leadership is now trying to downplay its role in the event, arguing that the event series was organized by “a supporter of the VHPA.” However, it was clearly organized by VHPA’s national leadership; the event was posted on VHPA’s national website, and was scheduled to be livestreamed on VHPA’s national Facebook page and YouTube channel. The VHPA has claimed that they were unaware of Saraswati’s “controversial statements,” and is trying to portray him as a victim, similar to “the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.”
Hindus for Human Rights calls on VHPA President Dr. Ajay Shah to take full responsibility for organizing the event and to publicly disavow the statements of Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, whose calls for murder and genocide against Muslims have incited violence in India.
If VHPA wants its fellow Americans to believe that it is truly a benign community organization working to serve Hindu American families, then it must disavow its hateful ideology of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) and reject all hate perpetuated in the name of religion. Hindu American families and communities deserve better.
Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit nonpartisan organization founded in 2019. We advocate for pluralism and civil and human rights in South Asia and North America, rooted in the values of our Hindu faith: shanti (peace), nyaya (justice) and satya (truth). We provide a Hindu voice of resistance to caste, Hindutva (Hindu authoritarianism), racism, and all forms of bigotry and oppression. We work with a broad coalition of partners to educate elected officials and the public in the United States about civil and human rights issues in South Asia. Our advocacy takes many forms, including government briefings, peaceful protests, op-eds, webinars, conferences, and social media mobilization. We represent a rising number of global Hindus who are opposed to the bigotry and violence of Hindutva, and we have members and chapters in Australia, South Africa, India, and beyond.
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