Hindu seer banished from Hyderabad
HYDERABAD: POLICE HAD BANNED PARIPOORNANANDA’S ‘DHARMIKA CHAITANYA YATRA’ TO YADADRI TEMPLE IN BHONGIR
The Telangana police on Wednesday banished Hindu seer Swamy Paripoornananda from Hyderabad to Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada over alleged inflammatory comments against Muslims.
Paripoornananda was picked up from his residence at Hyderabad’s Jubilee Hills, forced into a vehicle and sent to Kakinada in East Godavari district, where he founded his spiritual centre Sri Peetham.
He was banished two days after the police put him under house arrest. An “externment order” issued against him late on Tuesday night said he was being banished for six months.
Paripoornananda is accused of making inflammatory comments against Muslims at meetings of his Rashtriya Hindu Sena, which he founded in November 2017.
The police had earlier banned Paripoornananda’s 60-km ‘Dharmika Chaitanya Yatra’ from Hyderabad to Yadadri temple in Bhongir district on Monday.
Paripoornananda had announced the yatra to protest against popular Dalit critic Kathi Mahesh’s alleged comments against Lord Rama and Sita during a TV debate last week.
The police had banished Mahesh from Hyderabad to his native Chittoor on Monday.
Telangana police chief M Mahender Reddy said the police would deal firmly with those who attempt to “disturb Hyderabad’s peaceful environment”. “Swamy Paripoornananda, in his speeches over the last few months, made several inflammatory comments against Muslims. He alleged that the police were showing partisan attitude against majority Hindu community,” he said. “He appealed to all the Hindus to unite to form Telangana as a Hindu Rashtra.”
He said the yatra was bound “to create insecurity and a feeling of mistrust among members of various other communities. Hence the externment of the seer.”
State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president K Laxman condemned Paripoornananda’s house arrest and banishment. He said they would take it up with BJP chief Amit Shah when he arrives in Hyderabad for a day-long visit on Friday and seek his intervention.
“How can the police banish a spiritual leader trying to propagate peace and Hinduism? The externment of Swamy is nothing but banishing the entire Hindu community.”
BJP national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao called the banishment an insult to Hindus and said it was intended to disturb social harmony.
He accused Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of continuing with the policies under Hyderabad’s erstwhile Nizam rule. “This politically motivated decision is an assault on the human rights of the entire Hindu community,” Rao tweeted.
BJP affiliate Vishwa Hindu Parishad state president Rama Raju and secretary Gali Reddy and Bajrang Dal state president Subhash Chander threatened a state-wide agitation if the banishment was not revoked. VHP, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, BJP and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists took out a rally in Rao’s hometown of Siddipet and burnt his effigy in protest against the banishment.