Saffron camp launches save sants campaign

NEW DELHI: Angry over the recent turn of events, Hindu religious heads and leaders of various affiliates of the Sangh parivar on Sunday decided to launch a nationwide agitation against the manner in which the Congress-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra were using the ATS to target the ���sant-samaj��� and the Indian Army.

A meeting organised at Panipat on Sunday to pay homage to All India Sant Samiti general secretary Swami Hansraj���s spiritual guru was converted into a platform to vent the growing anger among these religious heads over the manner in which the investigations into the Malegaon blasts were being conducted. A ``Hindu Dharam Raksha Manch������ has been formed to tap these sentiments, and a meeting has been convened here on November 26 in what is being interpreted as a show of strength being planned by these organisations.

The Panipat meeting was attended by almost 1000 sadhu-sants, leaders of various organisations fighting for the ���Hindu cause���. Among those who shared platform included Akhada Parishad president Mahant Gyandas of Ayodhya, Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, RSS chief K S Sudarshan, VHP international working president Ashok Singhal, general secretary Praveen Togadia and BJP president Rajnath Singh.

The meeting saw Mahant Gyandas setting aside his differences with the VHP to rub shoulders with Mr Singhal and Mr Togadia. The two sides have never shared the dais with each other in the past. The coming together of these leaders, who wield a lot of clout within their own spheres of influence, should send alarm bells ringing in the UPA camp. It could trigger a polarisation along communal lines ���something that the Congress��� political managers would be keen to avoid at this juncture.

���The Congress-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra have, in pursuit of vote-bank politics, been unfairly targeting religious heads, the Army and, in fact, the entire Hindu society, under the ruse of Malegaon investigations. There is a sustained campaign going on to denigrate these section for petty vote-bank politics,������ Mr Togadia said.
The participants, in fact, picked holes in the ``revelations������ being ``leaked selectively������ by the ATS.

``We are now told that Lt Col Purohit, who was allegedly the mastermind behind the Malegaon blasts, stole 60 kgs of RDX from the Army. Would such a case had gone undetected? Are there any records to show that such a huge amount of explosives was siphoned off from the Army? Did the Army launch any investigation?������ the VHP leader wondered.

The gathering, in fact, saw a pattern in which Hindu religious heads were being sought to be brought into the dragnet by the ATS. ``It all started with the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. The names of Swami Ashimanand of Dangs, Yogi Adityanath, Swami Avadheshand, Kashi Sumeru Peeth Shankaracharya Swami Narendranand and Mahant Amritanand subsequently cropped up during the course of the probe, without any evidence to back the charges against them. There is clear attempt to defame the Hindu society,������ Mr Togadia alleged.