Challenging the Hyderabad police, controversial BJP MLA Raja Singh announced that he would go ahead with the Shobha Yatra – a procession celebrating Hindu god Rama – which is planned in Dhoolpet on Wednesday, April 17. The annual Shobha Yatra procession is taken out in Hyderabad during Ram Navami. The procession however has become a venue for the BJP MLA to make hate speeches against Muslims. Raja Singh claimed that the Hyderabad police had denied him the permission to carry out the procession.
Showing a letter received from the Hyderabad police, Raja Singh on X said, “At 9 pm, local police officers gave me a paper saying the permission I had sought for the Sri Rama Navami Shobha Yatra was cancelled. It has been 40-45 days since I applied for permission,” he claimed. He added that the letter mentioned that the police give permission to only one Shobha Yatra. Raja Singh claimed that the main procession organised by him from Dhoolpet was denied permission, and wondered to whom the police had granted permission.
Blaming the Congress government for allegedly curbing the celebration of Hindu festivals, Raja Singh said, “We knew that if Congress came to power, the police would do injustice to Hindus.” He announced that at 12 pm on April 17, he would take out the Shobha Yatra, and “no one can stop it.”
Last year, despite the Telangana High Court’s orders barring him from making communal speeches, Raja Singh violated the bail conditions and made an appeal to make India, a secular country, into a unified Hindu state (Akhand Hindu Rashtra).
“Today in India, there are 100 crore Hindus. So why not declare India as a Hindu country? Today, we have more than 50 Islamic countries and 150 Christian countries. So today I want to ask those ‘impotent’ leaders who are against Akhand Hindu Rashtra, why are you objecting to it?” Raja Singh had said.
Some of his followers in the procession were also seen carrying a huge portrait of Nathuram Godse, a religious extremist who assassinated MK Gandhi.
During the procession he asked the crowd to take an oath to make a resolution for the formation of Akhand Hindu Rashtra, retaliate against ‘love jihadis’, prevent cow slaughter and religious conversions. 'Love jihad' is a bogey spread by right-wing groups, claiming that Muslim men 'trap' Hindu women in romantic relationships with the intent of forcefully converting them to Islam. However, there is no evidence for such claims.
