National

Giriraj Kishore warns of '1947-like situation'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 19. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad today warned that the country could be headed for "another 1947'' (meaning another Partition) if political parties on both sides of the divide did not stop adopting "double-standards.''

Back from his visit to Gujarat, the VHP international senior vice-president, Acharya Giriraj Kishore, said the capital witnessed a terrorist attack on Parliament, and yet the Government continued to apply "double-standards.'' He referred to the withdrawal of the charges under POTA against the "Muslims arrested for the Godhra carnage'' as an example of a weak-kneed Government, but when asked whether "double-standards'' were evident in the fact that Hindu criminals arrested for the Gujarat violence were not charged under POTA, he ignored the question.

The VHP leader said he was neither happy with the Congress-ruled States -- in Maharashtra, a man charged with being a terrorist was let off on bail -- nor with the Centre, which had ''failed to arrest the Imam Bukhari'' who had himself stated that he was an ISI man. The Centre's handling of terrorism also left much to be desired.

He said the Opposition parties saw the Gujarat Chief Minister as a ''Hindu leader'', and attacking him as such, instead of viewing the BJP's defence of Mr Modi as a political party trying to defend its Chief Minister.

Acharya Kishore criticised the British High Commission for sending a team to Gujarat and making adverse comments on the handling of the situation by the State Government. The British, he said, had always favoured Muslims right through the days of the Raj to Partition.

He warned that the country would be pushed towards a situation like what existed immediately before Partition " unless the nationalist forces come together and act decisively.''

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