VHP Leader Praveen Togadia booked for hate speech in Maharashtra

Amid mounting pressure from the Centre, the Maharashtra police Thursday booked Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia for allegedly hate speech at Nanded district in Maharashtra, official reports said.

According to report, the Maharashtra police came into action after the direction came from State government.

A First Information Report has been lodged against VHP leader who allegedly spitting venom against a particular community.

Earlier, Minister of State for Home R.P.N. Singh Thursday has said that Maharashtra Government must take action against Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) President Praveen Togadia if his speech is inflammatory because everybody is equal in the eyes of law.

“Well, as you know law and order is a state subject. All state governments have free choice to take action and are bound to take action if anybody raises inflammatory speeches. And I am sure the state government will take the appropriate action in any case because everybody is equal in the eyes of law,” he said.

To a poser on the VHP upping the ante with the BJP, Singh said: “I think all mainstream political parties should stay away from these kinds of statements and all of them should come on board and do away with these kinds of statements. Politics is most serious thing. Everybody seems to be talking about development, but we hear these fringe players all the tensions being focused on them.”

“Well, we can’t blame the BJP. Whenever elections come, their only issue remains the Ram Mandir. And so, it’s not something new that we are seeing that is happening. Whenever the elections are due, the BJP comes back to its old ideology of building the Ram temple,” he added.

According to reports, Togadia allegedly attacked Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) politician Akbaruddin Owaisi and members of a particular community at a public meeting at Bhokar town in Nanded district.

Owaisi was arrested on charges of making a hate speech in Andhra Pradesh’s Adilabad district last month.

Demanding swift and stringent action against Togadia over his hate speech against members of a particular community, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh had earlier on Wednesday said no religious fundamentalists should be allowed to play with communal accord in the country.

–With ANI Inputs–

 

Team Anna Slams Congress for Linking Hazare to RSS

Team Anna released photographs of some Congress leaders with former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Nanaji Deshmukh as it slammed the party over its renewed allegations about the social activists’ saffron links.

The Bharaitya Janata Party (BJP) also slammed the Congress for raising a ruckus over the photograph published in a daily. The photographs released by Team Anna show Congress leader Motilal Vora sharing the stage with Deshmukh. Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Congress leader Balram Jharkhar have also been photographed with Deshmukh. In one of the photographs, Deshmukh is sitting alongside former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Jhakhar.

Earlier in the day, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh alleged that Hazare had links with the RSS. Referring to the photograph published by a Hindi daily, Singh tweeted: ‘And he denied any association with RSS! Now whom do we believe Facts with Picture and the claim of RSS or Anna? I am again proved right.’ His party colleague and union minister Beni Prasad Verma joined the tirade against Hazare, saying he was an ‘RSS agent’ and ‘army deserter’. Congress spokesperson Raashid Alvi said that Anna should come clean on his links with the RSS. ‘Which ideology Anna follows is his personal decision.

But there should be some honesty about it, people have the right to know what your ideology is. People must know,’ Alvi said. But Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal rejected the allegations, saying Hazare was ‘an agent of the country’. ‘Anna is an agent of our country. When they (government) don’t have anything to say, they say these things…Why do they not pass Jan Lokpal bill, why do they want to keep CBI in their hands,’ Kejriwal said, adding that the Congress wanted to divert the attention of people. Another Hazare associate Kiran Bedi tweeted: ‘Does sharing of the dais make one each other’s agent? Next time shud one sit alone? When two persons share a dais do they become each others agents? (sic)’ Hazare is slated to start a three-day fast in Mumbai from Tuesday to press for a stong Lokpal bill. His fast will coincide with the expected debate in parliament on the long-pending anti-corruption legislation.

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said Congress was raising irrelevant issues. ‘The Congress has lost its mind. And it is because of their frustration that they are talking rubbish and asking inane questions which need not be answered,’ Javadekar said. ‘Nanaji was a great patriot and activist. All parties had good relations with him. Who made this allegation? Digvijay Singh? He also has many pictures with Nanaji,’ Javadekar added.

Related articles

• Anna writes to PM, Cong-Hazare war gets personal (ibnlive.in.com)
• Team Anna-Govt at loggerheads over RSS photo (ibnlive.in.com)
• ‘Centre provoking us’ (thehindu.com)
• Anna Hazare is an absconding soldier: Congress (ibnlive.in.com)

‘Dalit PM From Congress In Near Future’

The day is not far off when a Dalit would be nominated as Prime Minister by Congress, a senior party leader said on Sunday.

“Congress has made 4 CMs in different states in past. Day is not far when it will give a dalit PM, not for votes but for dalit empowerment,” party leader Anil Shastri posted in popular microblogging site Twitter.

The statement comes in the wake of Mayawati‘s claim that Congress could appoint Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar or Union Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde as Prime Minister ahead of the UP Assembly elections.

Earlier, AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh, who is in-charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, had dismissed Mayawati’s claim saying that Manmohan Singh would remain as the Prime Minister.

Shastri, in an another tweet, said, “Mayawati can’t be the only dalit aspiring to be PM. There are many more qualified and capable leaders in the Congress.”

On the debate over RTI, the Congress leader said there was a concerted effort from people within the government to dilute the Act.

“There seems to be a concerted effort by people in govt to dilute and weaken the RTI which should be resisted by all right thinking people,” he said.

Shastri has expressed his views in the backdrop of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh‘s statement that a ‘critical look’ must be taken at the RTI Act.