A video has gone viral over the internet in which a content creator from a Youtube channel named Dhakad TV, identified as Arun Gautam, was seen abusing Hindu seer Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya, the founder and head of Tulsi Peeth, a religious and social service institution in Chitrakoot named after Saint Tulsidas. The video has garnered widespread attention prompting Netizens to call for the police to take action against the channel owner.
The video, wherein the YouTube channel owner is seen using extremely derogatory, abusive words against the Hindu seer, was released on April 8 and has garnered 20 thousand views since then.
Notably, Rambhadracharya has been blind since his early childhood. In the video, Arun Gautam mocks the disability of the Hindu seer by claiming that he is not only physically but also mentally disabled. He goes on to use snide phrases such as ‘goonda’ (goon), ‘sadak chaap’ (roadside person), ‘aatankvadi’ (terrorists), and so on for the seer who is highly respected and revered by millions of Hindus.
In a video full of derogatory words and expletives, Arun Gautam goes on to slam the government for awarding Swami Rambhadracharya a Padma Vibhushan in 2015.
He went on to label Swami Rambhadracharya a ‘coward’ who feared the late Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. He claimed that while Mulayam Singh Yadav was still alive, the seer lacked the courage to call on his supporters to raise ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans and that now that the SP patriarch is no longer alive, he is provoking his followers, who are mostly Dalits and people belonging to the backward class, against the SP leaders. He goes on to accuse the seer of spreading hatred.
The YouTuber goes on to incite the Dalits and the OBCs by claiming that such ‘babas’ thrive on the money of the backward class people and exploit it to provoke them against their political leaders.
The Youtuber Arun Gautam decided to go on this rant against the Hindu seer because he was supposedly ‘annoyed’ by a particular slogan raised by Swami Rambhadracharya recently during a Ram Katha held in Agra’s Kothi Meena Bazar grounds. The seer had said, “Mare Mulayam aur Kashiram, prem se bolo Jai Shri Ram,” by which he meant that Mulayam Singh and Kashiram are no longer there, but ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is resonating even today.
Arun Gautam, conveniently, twisted the slogan raised by Swami Rambhadracharya to suit his narrative and used it to incite the Dalits and the OBCs against the Hindu seer. He blatantly insulted the Tulsi Peeth seer’s scholastic achievements and knowledge of Ramayana, the Sanskrit epic, and other Hindu scriptures, claiming that memorising a text and blabbing it is easy and that anyone could do it.
The Hinduphobic YouTuber not only insulted Swami Rambhadracharya but went on to defame all Hindu seers and saints by calling them worst than Pakistani terrorists. Arun Gautam rebukes the people for supporting such Hindu sheers and warns them against funding and attending sermons by such “aatankis (terrorists) masquerading as sheers.”
After the video went viral, several social media users went on to criticise the act of the YouTuber and called for police action against him for insulting one of the most revered Hindu saints in the country.
Kindly take action against this goon as he is abusing and using very derogatory remark for our dharmyacharya Shri Rambhadracharya @cmyogi @Uppolice @chitrakootpol https://t.co/7Hj7anbKbO
— Adv Pawan Tripathi (@adv_pawan7) April 6, 2023
Meet Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya
Swami Rambhadracharya is the founder and head of Tulsi Peeth, a religious and social service institution in Chitrakoot named after Saint Tulsidas. He is one of four incumbent Jagadguru Ramanandacharyas and has held this title since 1988.
Rambhadracharya is famous across the globe as the foremost authority on Tulsidas and for composing numerous poems, books and papers on Lord Rama despite being visually impaired since the age of 2.
He is also a leader of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). His organisation runs the Jagadguru Rambhadracharya University for the disabled. In 2015, Rambhadracharya was awarded Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honour.
Swami Rambhadracharya was also among the expert witnesses in religious matters in the Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid dispute case in the Allahabad High Court. He testified in July 2003.
Firing on Kar Sevaks in Ayodhya on orders of Mulayam Yadav
On 2nd November 1990, Hindu saints and thousands of Karsevaks, comprising also of women and elderly people, took their march towards the Ram Janmabhoomi site where the illegal structure called Babri then stood. The security forces, who were instructed to stop the Hindus from reaching the site, lined up on the road to block the way.
Whenever the security personnel tried to impede the Hindu devotees, they would sit there and start chanting the name of Lord Ram and reciting Bhajans (religious songs). They touched the feet of the security personnel, deployed to prevent them from marching ahead. Each time they did this the security personnel would move back and the Karsevaks would move forward. Though unarmed, the Karsevaks remained undeterred.
This kept happening until the IG passed orders and the police personnel sprung into action. Tear gas shells were fired, and lathis were rained at the Karsevaks, but the resolute Ram Bhakts neither counter-attacked nor did they agitate or falter. Suddenly the security personnel started responding by opening fire. Many Hindu devotees were targeted and gunned down. It’s believed that the security personnel hunted and targeted Hindus in every lane and bylane leading to the Ram Janmabhoomi and within no time the streets converted into a war zone.
The incident which occurred in Ayodhya, almost 32 years back, left an ineradicable mark in the history of India. After the brutal massacre, different media houses had come up with different numbers of those killed on November 2, 1990. Though the official report on the incident concluded that 16 people had been killed in the firing, however, the fact remained that the number was potentially far higher.
This action is often seen in connection with Mulayam Singh Yadav’s statement from October 1990 in which he said, “Let them try and enter Ayodhya. We will teach them the meaning of the law. No masjid will be broken.” Mulayam Singh Yadav was the chief minister of the state at that time. “Mile Mulayam Kanshi Ram, Hawa Ho Gaye Jai Shri Ram” was the SP-BSP alliance’s campaign slogan for the UP Assembly Elections in 1993, which took place one year after the disputed structure at Ram Janmabhoomi was demolished. Due to his actions, Mulayam Singh Yadav acquired the title “Mullah Mulayam.”
There were no mobile phones or internet then, but some videos of this incident recorded with cameras occasionally come out on social media. One such video is available on Facebook, in which both the brutality of the police and the dedication of Ram bhakts can be seen together.
In this video, the police can also be seen baton-charging at the saints and seers and firing bullets from their guns. A Ram bhakt can be heard saying, “Come, lathi-charge, kill. We won’t go, even if you shoot.” One can find arson at various places and people collecting stones in this video. People are also chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’. In many places, unconscious people are lying on the ground.
With inputs from a Hindi article by Anupam Singh.
