Journalist forced to chant Jai Shri Ram at Jantar Mantar rally, Cornered upon refusal
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New Delhi: Footage from the Jantar Mantar rally showed a journalist being cornered, pushed around, and forced to chant 'Jai Shri Ram". National Dastak reporter Anmol Pritam said that a crowd attempted to scare him and force him into chanting 'Jai Shri Ram'.
He added that the people called him jihadi and said that he will have to chant the prayer if he wants to live in India.
AnmolPritam tweeted a video of the incident. He was at the site to report the event. The video shows a crowd agitatedly telling him: "Say Jai Shri Ram!" When he did not obey, a man shouted "Ye hai jihadi! (This is a jihadi)." Another said: "If you want to live in this country, then you have to say Jai Shri Ram." Another in the crowd is heard asking: "Why can't you say, is something stuck in your mouth?"
Pritam replied that he will say it if he feels like it. "You cannot force me to say it". When the reporter tried to move out of the crowd, he was seen being cornered. National Dasktak tweeted the video and said that Pritam was threatened by the "so-called Hindu organisations". "It appears that this so-called Hindu organisation does not consider people from the Dalit and OBC communities as Hindus. The National Dastak team condemns this incident," tweeted the channel.
The rally at Jantar Mantar on Sunday was organised by Bharat JodoAandolan and led by former Delhi spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay brought out hundreds of people. Footages from the event showed a sloganeering mob that raised inflammatory, anti-Muslim chants. The Indian Express reported that Upadhyay and five other men identified from the footage were arrested by The Delhi Police.
Ashwini Upadhyay said that the rally was held against colonial laws and to raise the demand to abolish 222 British laws. He denied any involvement in anti-Muslim slogans.
He claimed that he has no idea who the people chanting inflammatory slogans are. He has submitted a complaint to the Delhi Police to examine the authenticity of the footage. Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Deepak Yadav said that the video is being examined. "A case has been registered under relevant sections of the law and an investigation is in progress," he added.