Buddhists ‘insulted’, Gujarat Congress V-P threatens to fast

With a view to adding momentum to the agitations by dalits in the city, the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee vice-president Girish Parmar threatened to sit on an indefinite fast in front of the civic body' godown. Statues of Dr BR Ambedkar and Lord Buddha have been seized from the place.

Parmar said Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has seized the statues and kept them along with the trash in the godown. "Until the statues are either kept inside the temple or AMC commits to laying the statues in the temple with all due reverence, I will sit on an indefinite fast," said Parmar.

Parmar, in a press note, has also mentioned that the seizure of these statues is an insult to the Buddhist community residing in the city and AMC should immediately rectify it. He said that in BJP-ruled Ahmedabad, the religion is being insulted.Other activists too have threatened to join the agitation if AMC doesn't fulfill their demand of placing the statues in the Vihars. "We will continue our protest till our demands are fulfilled. We want AMC to provide an alternate place to construct the Buddha Vihar," Ashok Bhati, a dalit activist told DNA. He argued that if AMC could give alternate land for construction of the temples on government land, why could it not do so for the construction of Buddha Vihar.

The civic body demolished Buddha Vihar on March 19, 2012, to remove the encroachment on the government land.