The Hindu : National : VHP: we don’t have big presence in Kandhamal

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VHP: we don’t have big presence in Kandhamal

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Tuesday charged that Christians in Orissa’s Kandhamal district were setting fire to their own homes with an eye on compensation.

At a press conference here on Tuesday, VHP central unit secretary Mohan Joshi said: “Christians are setting their own homes on fire to get good compensation [from the government]. There are rivalries among Christian groups. They are attacking and killing each other.”

Mr. Joshi complained that recently some “one thousand innocent Hindu tribals and members of Hindu organisations have been arrested and mala fide cases registered against some 4,000 persons.”

To a question, he said the VHP did not have a large presence in Kandhamal, engulfed in violence for the last six weeks. “Only a few conveners, but no units of the VHP function in Kandhamal,” he said, contrary to the assertion by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionaries that the VHP has a large presence in the area where it has been “working and doing social service.”

Mr. Joshi was critical of the Naveen Patnaik government and said, “You should ask the Bharatiya Janata Party” why it remained its coalition partner. “The government has done no development work in the tribal district. No roads, no schools, no colleges, no clinics or hospitals, nothing.”

Asked whether the VHP had made any representation to the government, Mr. Joshi said: “Memorandums have been given but I do not have copies.” He was asked why the VHP had politically helped the BJP if the government had done nothing. He denied that the VHP was in any way connected to the BJP.

To a question whether he supported dismissal of the Orissa government and imposition of President’s Rule, he said, “Getting rid of the government will not solve the problem.”

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