Jantar Mantar: Uttam Malik, Who Raised Anti-Muslim Slogans, Still on the Run

"Hindustan mein rehna hoga, Jai Sri Ram kehna hoga (If you want to stay in India, you have to say Jai Sri Ram)."
"Mulleh kate jaayenge, Ram Rajya dikhaenge (Muslims will be killed, we will establish Ram Rajya)."

These slogans were raised by a Uttam Malik alias Uttam Upadhyay during the protest against colonial laws in Jantar Mantar on Sunday, 8 August. Uttam can be seen in several videos on social media, raising objectionable slogans against the minority community.

Soon after the event, the police had identified Uttam along with other men, for their role in raising inflammatory and anti-Muslim slogans. Delhi Police sources confirmed to The Quint that raids have been conducted at multiple places. Four days after the event, the police is yet to nab him.

Uttam belongs to the outfit called Bhagwadhari Yodha Sangh. Ahead of the 8 August event, he had shared a video of SC advocate Ashwini Upadhyay and Pushpendra Kulsrestha, where they were demanding to get rid of the colonial laws. Upadhyay can be heard saying, "We are all going on 8 August, but it will only make a difference when many of us show up. So I am requesting everyone to show the fire in their heart on the day."

Their agenda is getting rid of colonial laws and welcoming new uniform laws. The five most important of which are:

• Uniform education (samaan shiksha)

• Uniform civil code (samaan nagrik samhita)

• Control on conversions (dharmataran niyantran)

• Control on intruders (ghuspeet niyantran)

• Population control (jansankhya niyantran)

In an interview from the event, he alleged that when Muslims go to read the namaz, they are not going to offer prayers but actually having a meeting. "But amongst Hindus, this does not happen. They have to be told to go to the temple. So if we do not insult the Muslims, we will not be able to break them despite how many Jai Sri Rams and Hanuman Chalisa we chant," he said to Newslaundry.

He said he was a follower of Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, the head priest of the Dasna Devi temple’s (Ghaziabad), who has constantly been in the news for his controversial statements.

Speaking about Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, he said that he listens to everything that he says. "Whatever he says, we follow. What he does is absolutely right. Everyone fights for their own religion."

Amongst various things, Narsinghanand has been booked for making derogatory comments against the Prophet, congratulated a man for vandalising a Sai Baba idol in Delhi and has stood by his disciple who thrased a Muslim boy for entering the Dasna Devi temple to drink water.

The Quint tracked two profiles of Uttam on Facebook, one of them is called Uttam Upadhyay (Joy).

The 'about' section of the Bhagwadhari Yodha Sangh shows how they are inspired by the RSS, "The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has considered the most sacred saffron flag as its Guru. This flag is installed in the branches of the Sangh, it is worshiped and considered as a witness in front of which all the workers take the oath of service to the nation and public service."

He has two profiles on Facebook. In one of them, he calls himself an event organiser, in politics, and a dance teacher. In the second one, he has tagged the Bhagwadhari Yodha Sangh and shared videos of Ashwini Upadhyay.

Since most of his work is around Ghaziabad, we spoke to other Hindutva leaders in the area who said that they have tried to reach out to him and offer him support. "But he is not reachable anywhere. We have sent teams to his home and elsewhere, but we do not know where he is. Yes, he has made a mistake but we want to help him," Vishnu Prajapati, from the Hindu Raksha Dal in Ghaziabad, told The Quint.