A leader of the far right-wing group Bajrang Dal, at an event at Silchar in Assam’s Cachar district, said that Hindus who visit churches to celebrate Christmas “will be beaten”, as per NDTV.

In the gathering last week, Mithu Nath, the General Secretary of the district unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (Bajrang Dal’s parent body), announced that Hindus would “not be allowed” to attend Christmas Day programmes in Assam due to the alleged closure of Vivekananda Centre in the Christian-majority Meghalaya state capital Shillong.

Keerthi Jalli, Cachar Deputy Commission, took note of the inflammatory speech made by the saffron outfit’s district leader and said she has instructed the superintendent of police to probe the matter and “take necessary steps”.

“The Hindus (who go to churches) will be beaten because I revile those Hindus who would go and have fun at a Christian function after they shut down our places of worship. No Hindu will go to church this Christmas. We will make sure of it,” Nath said.

Nath went on to say that he knows what the newspaper headlines were going to be the next day but that’s not his priority.

In his address, he also hit out at Muslims over “love jihad” and declared that the Bajrang Dal would accept any criticism to “protect our mothers and daughters”.

“People call us “Gunda Dal” but, if these criticisms are the price to pay for protecting our mothers and daughters from being pulled to the wrong way, we are happy to pay,” Nath said.

However, at the end of his address, Nath also advised those in the audience to stay “within the ambit of the law”.

Both Bajrang Dal and its parent body, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) are the affiliated organisations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).