‘Hindu swamis’ insulted Hinduism with their hate speech: Karan Singh led foundation

PTI, Dec 29, 2021, 6:48 PM IST

The trustees of Temple of Understanding India Foundation, headed by veteran Congress leader Karan Singh, on Wednesday termed the alleged hate speeches against minorities by ”some Hindu swamis” as ”shocking” and said India cannot afford hostile and divisive statements from any religion, far less from Hinduism which represents the vast majority in the country.

They expressed their deep ”shock and horror” at the ”utterances” by some Hindu religious leaders at Dharma Sansad organised in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar and Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur recently, and said they have ”insulted” Hinduism itself by making ”such statements”. These events highlight the importance of ”re-energising” the interfaith movement which strives to bring together people of different religious persuasions in a harmonious and creative dialogue, they stressed. ”The trustees of the Temple of Understanding India Foundation, under the chairmanship of Karan Singh, expressed their deep shock and horror at the recent utterances by some Hindu swamis in Hardwar and elsewhere. The open call for genocide of minorities is absolutely shocking,” they said in a statement.

The trustees of the Foundation underlined that the perpetrators will ”surely” be punished under the law of the land because their statements are not only against the existing legislation but against ”the very Constitution itself”, they underlined. ”By making such statements they have distorted the great Vedantic principles of common welfare and brotherhood found in the Upanishads which form the true basis of Hinduism, thereby insulting Hinduism itself,” they said.

”In a multi-religious, multi-linguistic and multi-cultural nations like India we simply cannot afford hostile and divisive statements from any religion, far less from Hinduism which represents the vast majority in the country,” they added.

The foundation advocates for interfaith values in the secular setting of the United Nations in support of peace, justice, human rights, and environmental sustainability.