A conclave of sadhus in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand has in the run-up to crucial Assembly elections allegedly urged the killing of Muslims to establish a Hindu Rashtra, with one speaker appearing to say he once wished he had “followed Nathuram Godse” and shot then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

A video has emerged also of an event in Delhi by the Hindu Yuva Vahini — a group with a similar name was formed nearly two decades ago by current Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath — where the participants purportedly vow to “fight, die for and, if necessary, kill” to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra.

Both events have drawn widespread condemnation, including from former armed forces chiefs.

However, no case has been registered, with Uttarakhand police telling journalists they had received no complaints and seen no videos. Delhi police, who report to the Union home ministry, are “awaiting the nod from our top brass” to act, an officer said.

The December 17-19 Dharma Sansad (religious parliament) in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, was organised by a VHP leader and monk who is an accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots that are considered to have played a key role in the BJP’s victory in the 2014 general election.

Videos have surfaced of purported hate speeches delivered at the discourse on “the future of Sanatan Dharma in Islamic India”, held by Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, mahant of the Prachin Kali Mandir, popularly known as the Dasna Devi Mandir in Dasna, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

One video of the Haridwar event shows Narasinghanand on the dais, purportedly appreciating a speech by a previous speaker and saying: “You cannot use a mere sword to kill Muslims…. You have to upgrade technically as they have sophisticated weapons.”

He appears to advise the gathering of about 20,000, mostly sadhus and their followers: “Produce more and more children; assemble the best weapons. That will protect you.”

Narasinghanand, who is in his mid 50s, was recently anointed mahamandaleshwar of the Juna Akhara. He is national organisational secretary of the Akhand Hindustan Morcha, a little-known arm of the VHP.

Narasinghanand told The Telegraph over the phone: “I’m trying to awaken the dead Hindu community, so I organised this programme.”

One video purportedly shows Dharamdas Maharaj, a sadhu from Bihar, telling the gathering: “When I read that our (then) PM said Muslims had first right over national resources, I thought that if I were an MP (thus having access to Parliament) and had a revolver, I would have become Nathuram Godse and pumped six bullets into the chest of Manmohan Singh.”

Godse had assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. Narasinghanand told this newspaper: “Yes, Dharamdas said this.”

Manmohan Singh had told a meeting of the National Development Council in 2006 that the government had to devise innovative ways to ensure that the minorities, particularly Muslims, were “empowered to share equitable fruit of development”.

Sangh parivar activists have long been twisting Singh’s statement. Adityanath too has been quoted as saying that Singh wanted the minorities to use the country’s resources first.

The video of the Delhi event shows men and women in saffron robes pledging in the name of one “gurudev” — right arm extended in a Nazi-style salute — to turn India into a “Hindu Rashtra”. A banner of the Hindu Yuva Vahini is seen on the wall behind.

“We shall fight; we shall die for and, if necessary, we shall kill,” the group appears to chorus.

Narasinghanand denied any link to this event, which seems to have been held in Delhi’s Govindpuri locality on December 19 gathering.

The Vahini, accused in several cases of violence and intimidation, has largely been lying low in the past five years.

Narasinghanand was arrested and granted bail in the Muzaffarnagar riots case. He has since then watched his temple in Dasna expand fast with local people donating or selling their land to the shrine.

He seems to enjoy the authorities’ support in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, both of which are due to vote in Assembly elections early next year.

Muslim organisations have accused Narasinghanand of pasting anti-Islam posters in Kanpur in April. While the police booked 250 people and arrested four for protesting against the posters, the monk faced no criminal case.

“The police obeyed the one who committed the crime and booked the victims,” said Hayat Zafar Hashmi, president of a local association of Muslims.

Narasinghanand’s disciples say he was previously Deepak Tyagi, a Kanpur boy who graduated as an engineer before becoming a monk.

Narasinghanand had held a meeting of sadhus in March 2015 and threatened a mass movement against the Narendra Modi government for showing no interest in turning India into a “Hindu Rashtra” or enacting a population control law.

An associate said: “Sadhus had become critical of Modi after he coined the slogan ‘Sabka sath sabka vikas (Support for all, development for all)’. However, he (Narasinghanand)softened after Union minister Giriraj Singh met him at his temple several times.”

Asked whether he still had the same demands from the government, Narasinghanand said: “It’s too late for such demands now. We now need to wake up the Hindus to fight.”