Who Is Yati Narsinghanand? Why Does He Feel A Woman With One Child Is A "Naagin"?

An FIR has been filed by police against Haridwar Dharm Sansad (an organisation in Haridwar city of Uttarakhand) after an allegedly provocative speech belittling women having a single child by Yati Narsinghanand. The same organisation was in news last year for openly calling for the killing of Muslims to establish a Hindu Rashtra.

The organisers have reportedly announced to hold a protest on January 16 against the action taken by the Uttarakhand government which has decided to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and lodged an FIR in the matter of hate speech made by Yati Narsinghanand.

Who is Yati Narsinghanand?

Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati is a saffron-robed priest and the main priest/mahant of a temple called Dasna Devi Mandir, which was in news last year. The temple is known for its strict rules and non-entry to Muslim people in the premise after Yati Narsinghanand was made its chief priest. Reportedly, aadhar cards get checked before entry to the temple.

The 58-year-old, Narsinghanand was born in Meerut of Uttar Pradesh. He is a graduate in Chemical Engineering from Moscow Institute of Chemical Engineer and returned to India in 1997. Since 2000, he has been actively seeking the cause of Hindutva Rashtra. He was even a member of Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party. However, he left politics in three months of joining it.

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He has been associated with many politicians like Kapil Mishra of Bharatiya Janata Party, Pinki Chaudhary of the Hindu Raksha Dal who claimed responsibility for a violent attack on students at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kamlesh Tiwari of Hind Samaj Party, who was killed in 2o19 in Lucknow.

As per a video that has recently gone viral on social media, in an all-woman gathering in Haridwar, he said a woman who gives birth to only one child is nothing but naagin (serpent). As per the Narsinghanand, "The Vedas tell us to produce more than one kid. Having no kid is better than having just one kid," which was cheered by several people sitting in the audience. He also insisted women have at least 5-6 baal-gopals in the house. He looked at scriptures near him and promised that these were things written in the holy books.

Additionally, no one in the large gathering was seen wearing masks.