The Hindu : Sheila trains guns on VHP's `trishul diksha'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 02, 2003

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Sheila trains guns on VHP's `trishul diksha'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI MAY 1. The Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today declared that any attempt to disrupt peace and harmony in the Capital would not be tolerated and added that she would raise the issue of the May 4 `Trishul Diksha' programme of Vishwa Hindu Parishad in the Capital with the Lieutenant-Governor, Vijai Kapoor, and seek strong measures to maintain law and order in the city.

Stating that the Trishul Diksha programme of the VHP leader, Praveen Togadia, in Delhi was a matter of concern, the Chief Minister said she would also be writing to the Police Commissioner, R.S. Gupta, seeking assurance that any attempt to disturb the peaceful atmosphere in the Capital would not be tolerated. "Those trying to spread poison by raising communal passions should not be spared. All right-minded people should speak in one voice against this attempt to raise the ugly head of communalism in the Capital by arousing religious passions.''

Asked if she fully supported the action taken by the Rajasthan Government against Mr. Togadia for organising such a programme in the State, the Chief Minister said had the law and order been under the control of her Government, she would have taken similar action against such religious zealots. However, she was confident that the people of Delhi would give a cold shoulder to such forces and not fall for their evil designs to divide society on communal and religious lines. "I will be taking up the matter with the Lieutenant-Governor in order to ensure that this poison is not spread by such vested interests across the Capital and in an unabashed manner,'' she stated.

Ms. Dikshit was of the view that such people should be stopped from carrying out activities which were detrimental to the unity and integrity of the country and which threatened the very basis of the secular fabric of society. Law and order being a Central Government subject, she said it is now the duty of the Union Home Ministry to ensure that everything passes off peacefully without any untoward incident. "These people may try anything with an eye on the Assembly elections but the people of Delhi have seen their real face. This is a city of progressive people who want peace, development and harmony. There is no place for communal poison,'' she added.

In another strongly worded statement, the Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress president, Rajesh Lilothia, today announced that youth workers would not allow Mr. Togadia to hold his Trishul Diksha and warned that if VHP leader was sighted by his cadres, they would confront him and hand him over to the police. The need of the hour is to defeat the evil designs of VHP and the fascist forces. Mr. Lilothia demanded that Mr. Togadia be arrested as he had committed a similar offence in Rajasthan and was taken into custody.

He said that BJP and its allies like RSS, VHP, Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal were a threat to national peace and urged the residents of Delhi to rise against such forces. He said Youth Congress workers would not allow Mr. Togadia to hold his programme at Laxmi Nagar in East Delhi.

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