DESCRIBING the proposed Communal Violence Bill as more dangerous than the Rowlatt Act of British period, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad will organise protest across the country on July 24 and 25. Calling the legislation ‘draconian’, the VHP vehemently opposed the Bill drafted by Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council. “It enables non-Hindus to commit crimes with impunity while rendering the Hindus incapable of defending themselves in the event of attacks from members of a minority community,” said a resolution adopted at VHP’s Central Managing Committee meeting organised in Allahabad from July 2 to 3. The meeting was attended by senior VHP functionaries from all the states. VHP president Shri Ashok Singhal, general secretary Dr Pravin Togadia and other senior leaders were present at the meeting.
“There are two internationally accepted principles of justice—the law of the land shall be applicable to all and a person shall be considered innocent unless proven guilty. The proposed Bill goes against these principles and aims at paving the way for a draconian law which tilts the scales against Hindus,” said the VHP general secretary Dr Pravin Togadia adding that the proposed Bill would ‘make it impossible for the police and the army to act against stone-pelting mobs in Kashmir’.
In another resolution, the VHP condemned midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev’s rally in New Delhi on June 4 and termed the act highly inhuman and anti-democracy. “This act of the government hurt the entire nation and the whole society is agitated over it,” said the resolution. “The Central government which acts on the instances of Smt Sonia Gandhi and some other foreign forces, is bent upon insulting the Indian culture, religious leaders and also the religious places of Hindus in the country. This meeting of VHP appeals to the entire society to foil these game plans of the government,” the resolution added.
About government interference in Baba Amarnath Yatra, the VHP said the government or the Shrine Board have no right to decide the dates, duration and nature of the annual Amarnath Yatra. “Since the government never interferes in the religious matters of Muslims, it has no right to interfere in the religious matters of Hindus. Their role is to just look after the management of the yatra and the rest has to be decided by the saints and the religious leaders,” the resolution said.
