The Hindu : National : No Hindu can be a terrorist: Togadia

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Wednesday, Nov 05, 2008
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No Hindu can be a terrorist: Togadia

Neena Vyas

Charges Anti-Terrorist Squad with fabricating evidence against Pragnya

‘I know Pragnya is not a terrorist’
Government demoralising armed forces: VHP

NEW DELHI: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) here on Tuesday argued that Hindus cannot be terrorists and warned of a “political backlash” if any government persisted with that claim.

VHP leader Pravin Togadia’s argument in support of ‘sadhvi’ Pragnya Singh Thakur at a press conference was a step ahead of her defence by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s on Monday when party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad had described the investigations against her by the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) as “sponsored investigations.”

Mr. Togadia charged the ATS with fabricating evidence against the ‘sadhvi,’ likening their story to “fiction … like a novel.” But the basic argument made by Mr. Togadia was: “No Hindu can be a terrorist.”

In response to a question whether he knew Ms. Pragnya Singh, he said, “I do not know Pragnya Singh at all. But I know she is not a terrorist.”

His complaint was that India had been a target of many bomb blasts since 1993 and they were all the handiwork of “jihadist Islamist terrorists.” Instead of going after them, the Congress government was going after Hindus and the police had even arrested an ex-army man and interrogated a serving army man.

He charged the government and the police with “demoralising the armed forces” and bringing “false cases” against army men.

“Hindus will not forget this. They [the police and the Congress] are committing the sin of describing a Hindu, a ‘sadhvi’, as a terrorist … I warn that there will be a political backlash and the government will be swept out,” Mr. Togadia said. Asked whether the VHP would like the Congress to be replaced by the BJP, Mr. Togadia said the people would decide which government to vote for.

Bajrang Dal chief Prakash Sharma, separately told this reporter that individual army man or Hindu could “go wrong.”

Corrections and Clarifications

A New Delhi report "No Hindu can be a terrorist: Togadia" (November 5, 2008) called Mumbai's ATS as the Anti-Terrorist Squad, while a Mumbai report "Pragnya undergoes narco tests", in the same issue, gave it as Anti-Terrorism Squad. The detail in the Mumbai report is right. (The Anti-Terrorism Squad, created by the Government of Maharashtra, in July 2004, is to: "get information about anti-national elements working in any part of Maharashtra; co-ordinate with Central information agencies, like IB, RAW and exchange information with them; co-ordinate with similar agencies of other States; track and eliminate activities of mafia and other organised crime syndicates, and detect rackets of counterfeit currency notes and smuggling narcotic substances".)

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