Samajwadi Party general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya has been booked for hurting religious sentiments after he raised a three-decade-old slogan on an alliance between his party and the Bahujan Samaj Party against the BJP in Uttar Pradesh.
Maurya had asked a gathering in Rae Bareli on Tuesday to chant the slogan, which was coined in 1993, in the presence of Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav who unveiled a statue of BSP founder Kanshi Ram. Maurya had repeatedly asked the people to chant: “Mile Mulayam Kanshi Ram, Hawa Ho Gaye Jai Shri Ram. (The BJP's slogan Jai Shri Ram will not work as Mulayam and Kanshi Ram have come together)."
The slogan was first raised in 1993 when the SP and the BSP had successfully contested the Assembly elections together against the BJP.
The complainant, a leader of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, an organisation founded by chief minister Yogi Adityanath when he was the MP of Gorakhpur, has alleged that Maurya has been seen in viral video clips "insulting Sanatan society”.
Vandana Singh, the circle officer of Sadar in Rae Bareli, said: “Marut Tripathi of the Hindu Yuva Vahini had submitted a complaint accusing Maurya of hurting the religious sentiment of a community. An FIR was registered after the initial probe. An inquiry is in progress.”
Sanjay Tyagi, the in-charge of Kotwali police station, said: “The case has been registered under Sections 295A of the IPC for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.”
Maurya said the slogan was political, not religious. "The so-called protectors of Hinduism had issued a diktat in the past to chop off my nose and hands and kill me, but no case was registered against them. I repeated a slogan popular three decades ago and was booked.”
