BSP chief Mayawati said in Lucknow on Monday that a “wrong practice” of forcing people to chant religious slogans had taken root in Uttar Pradesh and some other states, and asked the Centre and state governments to take strong action against it. Her comments followed a complaint by a cleric that he had been made to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

Mayawati’s statement

In a post in Hindi on Twitter, Mayawati said the practice of compelling people to chant religious slogans and committing atrocities against them should be condemned. She said governments at the Centre and in the states needed to act firmly so that brotherhood and harmony were preserved everywhere and development was not hindered.

The Muzaffarnagar complaint

According to SP Shailesh Kumar Pandey, the cleric, Imam Imlaq-ur-Rehman of Muzaffarnagar, said he was riding his motorcycle to his village on Saturday when a group of about 12 young men stopped him, assaulted him and tugged at his beard, before forcing him to chant the slogan. The SP said the Uttar Pradesh Police had registered a case against nearly 12 youths.

See also: Bahujan Samaj Party, Uttar Pradesh MLAs.

Originally published on 15 July 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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