The Hindu : VHP leader slams Cong.-ruled States

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 30, 2003

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VHP leader slams Cong.-ruled States

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI MARCH 29. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, Acharya Dharmendra, today accused the Governments in Congress-ruled States of launching a ``new campaign to suppress and annihilate Hindutva forces''. Citing his recent arrest in Madhya Pradesh besides registration of an FIR against him in Rajasthan, he alleged that the Congress Chief Ministers were taking ``personal interest in intimidating VHP leaders and Hindu sants''.

Speaking to presspersons after leading protesters on the third day of the VHP's week-long ``satyagraha'' here, Acharya Dharmendra, alleged that the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, forced the local administration in Ujjain to arrest him without any warrant or charge-sheet. ``As a result, the local administration had to face problems in carrying out legal proceedings against me. I had to come out on bail to take part in the ongoing struggle for the temple construction.''

Accusing the Congress Government in Rajasthan of cooking up false cases against him, Acharya Dharmendra said 18 days after his ``trishul diksha'' programme at Asind in Bhilwara district, the State Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, forced the administration to lodge a ``false FIR'' against him. Lambasting the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Government in Jammu and Kashmir for failing to protect innocent Kashmiri Hindus, the VHP leader said the Congress was equally responsible for the massacre as the party had been supporting the Government there. Terming the massacre as a ``new ploy to eliminate Hindus from the Valley'', he said to divert people's attention from its failures as in Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress was now targeting the VHP and ``sants'' and accusing them of fanning communal tension.

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