The Hindu : Sena welcomes Venkaiah Naidu's suggestion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 12, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bidar

Sena welcomes Venkaiah Naidu's suggestion

BIDAR, JAN. 11. Shiv Sena will not say no to the suggestion made by the Bharatiya Janata Party President, Venkaiah Naidu, that his party and its allies should reach out to the minorities, according to Manikbhau Selukar, head, communications wing of the Shiv Sena, Gulbarga-Bidar.

He told presspersons here on Sunday that in an electoral democracy, parties had to make all kinds of attempts to get votes. The feeling that his party was anti-Muslim was false propaganda.

"If we had anything against Muslims, we would have shown that when we ruled Maharashtra for four-and-a-half years. There was not a single Hindu-Muslim clash that period," he said.

Mr. Selukar refused to react to a question on the Dalai Lama's efforts to resolve the Ayodhya issue through talks, saying that his party high command would take a stand on it.

He said the Shiv Sena would carry out a Statewide struggle against bad roads in Karnataka. "When an equal number of road development programmes are implemented in Karnataka and Maharashtra, and a similar sum spent on roads in both the States, why is that the roads in Maharashtra are world class, while those in Karnataka are not good?'' he asked.

Mr. Selukar said his party would organise an agitation in the districts bordering Maharashtra, demanding question papers in Marathi for Marathi-medium students.

There seemed to be a systematic conspiracy by the Government to see that Marathi-medium students did not secure good marks, he added.

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Sena welcomes Venkaiah Naidu's suggestion