Lashing out at Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia for allegedly targeting a Muslim businessman for buying properties in certain areas, the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday demanded action against the right-wing group leader for "vitiating the peaceful atmosphere" during elections.
A First Information Report has been registered against Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia for inciting communal passions after he allegedly asked locals of a society in Bhavnagar, Gujarat to forcibly occupy a house purchased by a Muslim man in a Hindu-dominated locality.
According to a statement issued by the VHP in Delhi, Togadia, 62, who suffered from low blood sugar levels, was found in an unconscious state in Shahibaug and was taken to Chandramani Hospital located in the same area.
The district administration of Kandhamal, which has been violence-free for about a year, on Tuesday decided not to allow VHP leader Pravin Togadia to visit the town.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad will declare Gujarat a "Hindu state" by 2015 besides having its presence in all 18,000 villages of the state in the next two years, the outfit's leader Pravin Togadia claimed.
Terming "false and malafide" the media reports of his involvement in the Malegaon blast, VHP leader Pravin Togadia on Monday threatened to take legal action for dragging his name into the case.
Veteran Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal has been replaced as the international president of the organisation while its general secretary Pravin Togadia was given a greater responsibility.
Condemning the brutal beheading of two Sikh traders in Pakistan, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia, said the issue calls for a war against Pakistan.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia, who was summoned by the Special Investigation Team for questioning in a 2002 Gujarat riot case, failed to appear on Monday before the Supreme Court-constituted agency in Ahmedabad.
The VHP leader, at a rally in Chikmagalur, Karnataka, had demanded installation of a Datta idol at Bababudanagiri, the Hindu-Muslim shrine.
Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party made it clear that the party does not subscribe to the views expressed by Dr Pravin Togadia, International general secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, who said at Ahmedabad that those who convert Hindus should be beheaded. Surprisingly, none of them were willing to go on record.
The Rajasthan government had on April 8 banned distribution, possession and carrying of tridents in the state except at religious places.
Firebrand Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia alleged that hate speech cases lodged against him in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra were an attempt by "vote-greedy political people" to engage him in legal tangles before elections in many states and, later on, at the Centre.
The VHP leader had been arrested in Ajmer on April 13 for violating a ban on distribution of tridents.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia was questioned by Supreme Court-constituted Special Investigation Team, which is probing some cases of 2002 riots, for more than four hours in Gandhinagar on Monday.
If Narendra Modi really means business, his government needs to arrest Dr Togadia immediately for what he has said and done in Bhavnagar and charge him with spreading hate in our society.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad's Gujarat unit had opposed the move of the state government to seek death penalty for former minister Maya Kodnani and others in the 2002 post-Godhra riots case, Parishad leader Pravin Togadia said on Wednesday.
International general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad Pravin Togadia and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi received a combined death threat Tuesday, VHP sources said in Ahmedabad.
Pravin Togadia, general secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, rejected the Anti Terrorism Squad's contention that those who had been arrested in the Malegoan bomb blast case and particularly Dayanand Pande had given a supari for killing senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Mohan Bhagwat and a colleague for straying away from the Hindu line.
Like Pravin Togadia, Kishore was also not allowed to enter the Patna airport terminal building.
It is necessary to shoot people in their chest if they shout slogans in favour of Pakistan and hoist Pakistani flags, Pravin Togadia said.
Two days after he was reportedly targeted by Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia for buying a home in a Hindu-dominated neighbourhood, Asghar Ali is untraceable.
Complying with the orders of the Election Commission, the Bhavnagar police have started an inquiry into the alleged hate speech given by Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Pravin Togadia in which he said Muslims should be stopped from buying property in Hindu-majority areas.
Two days after Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia reportedly told people that those from a minority community should be stopped from buying properties in Hindu-dominated localities, the Election Commission has sought the recording of the speech he had made in Bhavnagar.
Adding fuel to fire in the recent conversion-row, working president of right-wing organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Pravin Togadia said ancestors of Indian Muslims and Christians were Hindus.
"I am being targeted for a decade-old case, there is an attempt to suppress my voice. Rajasthan Police team came to arrest me. Someone told me plan was being made to kill me in an encounter," the VHP president claimed.
Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and Governor O P Kohli were also present at the meeting.
'Pass the law on Ram temple without any delay and stop fooling the majority'
Togadia said he would go on an indefinite fast from Tuesday to push the Hindutva cause.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders Ashok Singhal and Pravin Togadia were on Friday released along with 957 fellow cadres, a day after nearly 2,500 activists were arrested in a massive crackdown by Uttar Pradesh authorities to foil its yatra which also led to protests by its workers.
Three Bihar ministers have threatened to take action if VHP leader Pravin Togadia delivers a 'hate speech' in Patna.
'We want our military tanks in Lahore, missiles in Rawalpindi and the saffron flag in Karachi,' Togadia said at a trishul diksha programme in Delhi.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia on Tuesday said the outfit's controversial yatra would continue as planned.
Amid raging controversy over statements by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Giriraj Singh and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia, BJP prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that he disapproved of "petty" statements by those claiming to be BJP's well-wishers as they are deviating from the campaign.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Sunday inaugurated its controversial yatra from Ayodhya amidst a massive crackdown launched by the Uttar Pradesh administration which has arrested senior VHP leaders Ashok Singhal and Praveen Togadia, and over 500 people.