Swami Jitendranand Saraswati
Born(1972-02-25)February 25, 1972
Khadda, Kushinagar district,
Uttar Pradesh
NationalityIndian
Other namesSwami Jitendranand Saraswati,
Acharya Jitendra
CitizenshipIndian
EducationPost Graduate
Alma materGorakhpur University
OccupationEnvironmental Activist
Known forSave Ganga Crusader
Websitegangamahasabha.org

Swami Jitendranand (born 25 February 1972), also known as Acharya Jitendra, is a religious leader, monk, environmentalist activist. He is the General Secretary of Ganga Mahasabha. He is also serving as General Secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti. He is founder of Hind-Baloch Forum. An organisation dedicated to freedom of Balochistan and sacred Hindu Pilgrimage Hinglaj peeth. He has organised several seminar for Baloch freedom struggle throughout India. He is first religious petitioner against places of worship act 1991 in Supreme Court Of India.[1]

He has been working for Ganga since 2000. He is an environmental activist in India. It was his effort to convince Mr. Lal Krishna Advani[2] in 2008 to compel the Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri to abandon all state hydro-dam projects on the Ganga and persuade Professor Guru Das Agrawal G. D. Agrawal to give up his fast within 24 hours. In 2010 again, Acharya Jitendra played a crucial role to stop the Loharinag Pala Hydel Project – On The Ganga. He even approached senior Congress leaders for their support. When a favourable atmosphere was created, he met Pranab Mukherjee, leading a delegation of the Ganga Mahasabha. He then spoke to senior Vishva Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal and the Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajnath Singh, who persuaded CM Ramesh Pokhriyal to write to the PM, asking him to scrap the Loharinag Pala project. He challenged Tehari Dam project.[3] He wrote a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar demanding to rename Bakhtiyarpur after Chankya or Shilbhadra [4]

In March 2022, Jitendranand Saraswati was allegedly accused of inciting religious hatred towards Muslim, during the free screening of Vivek Agnihotri's film, The Kashmir Files, in front of the gathering that included young children.[5][6][7] Jitendranand reportedly told his audience "You think that you are safe here but you are not. You have no preparation… They are present in Badwani, Madhya Pradesh and every part of India. They’re a threat to the whole world.”[7] “Stay away from them like we stay away from the coronavirus.....What has Lord Bholenath taught us? He taught us that to save yourself, what should you pick up?” he asked the crowd, which responded: “shastra (arms)”.[6]

In August of the same year, The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) and Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), put forward a complaint to the Mumbai Police against Jitendranand Saraswati in response to him inciting his followers for lynching of pregnant Muslim women during one of his religious sermons.[8][9][10][11] The alleged hate speech incident was recorded in a video in Jitendranand Saraswati's own YouTube channel titled “देश धर्म पर आघात हम चुप क्यूँ है” (Why is the country silent on the attack on religion?).[12][8][9]

References

  1. ↑ "Swami Jitendranand Saraswati challenges constitutional validity of Places of Worship Act 1991 in Supreme Court". 25 May 2022.
  2. ↑ "Abandon dam projects on Ganga: Advani tells Khanduri Copyright Hindustan Times". Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
  3. ↑ "Official misleading people on tehri issue". 9 January 2006.
  4. ↑ "Rename Bakhtiyarpur to 'undo sins of the past', VHP-backed body writes to Bihar CM". 17 September 2019.
  5. ↑ ceylon1 (17 April 2022). "Are increasing calls for economic boycott of Muslims a sinister precursor to something worse?". ceylontribune.lk. Retrieved 7 December 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. 1 2 Salaria, Shikha (23 March 2022). "Seer launches tirade at Kashmir Files show in MP, says 'stay away from jihadis like from Covid'". ThePrint. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  7. 1 2 "The Kashmir Files: Right-wing outfits bring weapons inside theatres!". SabrangIndia. 23 March 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  8. 1 2 maniyar, zahid (9 August 2022). "CJP Impact: NCM directs Mumbai Police to investigate Swami Jitendranand Saraswati's hate speech". CJP. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  9. 1 2 "Real Impact, Real Change: CJP's Year of Monitoring Violations: a Review". NewsClick. 24 December 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  10. ↑ "Now, 'Swami' Jitendranand Saraswati calls for lynching of pregnant women". SabrangIndia. 2 June 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  11. ↑ Nair, Veena (3 February 2023). "Hate tracker 2022: A list of anti-Muslim incidents across India". The Siasat Daily. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  12. ↑ देश धर्म पर आघात हम चुप क्यूँ है, retrieved 7 December 2023
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.