| http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/02/stories/2008100261401200.htm National Neena Vyas NEW DELHI: Bajrang Dal chief Prakash Sharma has admitted that Bhupinder Singh, one of the two men who died in an explosion while bombs were assembled in a private hostel in Kanpur on August 24, was a "former activist." But "he left the Dal several years ago. The Dal cannot be held responsible for his actions," Mr. Sharma told The Hindu here on Wednesday When the Bajrang Dal was set up in 1984 as the youth arm of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Mr. Sharma was made its Kanpur unit convener. At that time, it was "active only in a few districts of Uttar Pradesh. Today it has some 13 lakh activists spread across most of the States and our aim is to cover every district of the country," said Mr. Sharma, who had just returned from a visit to Kanpur.
On August 24, the police found at the site of the bomb explosion at Rajeev Nagar "11 country-made pistols, explosives, seven timers, batteries and gelatin sticks," according to reports quoting Kanpur Inspector-General S.S. Singh. No further breakthrough has been made. "Yes, Bhupinder Singh was one of us, but I do not know Rajeev Mishra, who also died in that explosion," Mr. Sharma said.
The Bajrang Dal chief denied that his organisation was involved in the violence against Christians in Kandhamal district of Orissa or in Mangalore and elsewhere in Karnataka, although the Karnataka unit chief Mahendra Kumar, had issued a statement accepting its role.
Mr. Sharma dismissed that statement as a "mistake." "How can you say Hindus are involved? How can you be sure Christians are not killing each other? I know of two Christians who set fire to a church in Orissa."
Senior VHP leader Giriraj Kishore, who was present at the interview, said: "There was bound to be reaction when Lakshmanananda [VHP activist] was murdered. After all, he was working in that area."
Mr. Sharma said although the BJP was a coalition partner in the Orissa government "the murderers" of Lakshmanananda had not been caught. "The government has done nothing to catch the culprits." Mr. Sharma listed the tasks before the Dal as "seva" (service of the people) and "suraksha" (protection). Its volunteers were given tough physical training to help them protect themselves and the people. He insisted that they were not trained in firearms, and were trained only in "aiming with air guns for which we run regular camps." The larger aim of the Dal, Mr. Sharma said, was "to establish a Hindu Rashtra. As for the minorities, Mr. Sharma said, "they can live in a Hindu Rashtra. We do not say do not go to mosques or churches. But conversion must be stopped … We have re-converted to Hinduism through the ghar vapasi (home-coming) programme about 10,000-15,000 people since I became Bajrang Dal convener in 2002." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr Sharma offered a novel theory about Christians burning their own churches down which reminds me personally of the Islamic theories that do the rounds blaming Islamic atrocities on their victims also. |
__._,_.___
*****************************************
Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
*****************************************
Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
*****************************************
MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
*****************************************
Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm
****************************************************
VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
****************************************************
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___