Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Tuesday charged the BJD government in Orissa of being afraid to take action against the killers of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati
NEW DELHI: Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Tuesday charged the BJD government in Orissa of being afraid to take action against the killers of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati due to Sonia Gandhi's threat of imposition of President's rule in the state if it did so.
"Sonia Gandhi is giving directions to churches ... the Orissa government fears that Sonia Gandhi will impose President's Rule if it doesn't arrest 2,000 Hindus (for the violence after Saraswati's murder) as per her orders," VHP International President Ashok Singhal alleged at a press conference here.
Singhal claimed the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government was aware of who the killers of Swami Saraswati were but was not taking action as it did not want to lose power.
He heaped praise on the dead saint, saying Saraswati had worked in the Kandhamal area for 40 years and prevented conversions and cow slaughter.
Singhal said nobody was concerned about the attacks on temples but whenever an attack took place on a church there was a hue and cry.
"A Shiv temple was vandalised in Balishankara area of Sundergarh district and a Jagannath temple in Jalasara," he said.
When asked about the recent attacks on churches in Karnataka, allegedly by Bajrang Dal activists, Singhal said, "Nobody ever expresses concern over attacks on temples. This makes me very sad."
However, VHP spokesperson Surendra Jain denied involvement of his organisation in the Karnataka attacks and said names of VHP and its affiliated organisations were being misused to carry out communal attacks.
In his press conference, Singhal also brought up the issue of growing terror attacks in the country and claimed Pakistan's ISI was behind it.
"I believe that in Kabul (the recent attack on Indian embassy there) it was all engineered by ISI. Similarly, ISI has a role in the terrorist attacks in India," he said, suggesting that India should severe all diplomatic ties with Pakistan like it did when the Indian Parliament was attacked in 2001.
Singhal criticised union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and his deputy Sri Prakash Jaiswal. "If men like Patil and Jaiswal continue to be ministers, more people will continue to die," he said.
The right-wing leader claimed the terror attacks were not a result of intelligence failure but in reality a result of lack of will power on the part of those in power.
He said all SIMI hideouts should be raided and India's international boundaries with Bangladesh and Pakistan sealed.
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