Representatives of the Shia community on Wednesday flatly rejected Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Ashok Singhal's offer to hold talks on the Ayodhya issue.Singhal had said that since the Allahabad high court had dismissed the Sunni Waqf Board's suit staking claim to the disputed Ramjanma bhoomi- Babri Masjid land in Ayodhya, the VHP would now hold talks with Shia organisations. "The VHP is now trying to incite a confrontation between Shias and Sunnis," said a Shia cleric.
With Vishwa Hindu Parishad adamant in going ahead with its planned yatra from Ayodhya from Sunday, the Faizabad district administration on Friday issued arrest warrants against its 70 leaders amid heavy deployment of police force in the twin towns.
The final day of the Kingfisher Ultra Fashion Week in Visakhapatnam was stopped by the city police after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad protested against the alleged use of Lord Ganesh's images on 'revealing' dresses. VHP district secretary G Radhakrishna and its regional vice-president Thota Peda Venkateswara Rao lodged a complaint at the Three Town police station on Sunday against the display of images that allegedly hurt the religious sentiments of the community.
Advani's parikarma plans, however, have received support from the RSS, with its leader Suresh Soni saying the Sangh may consider joining him.
VHP leader Pravin Togadia told a dharam sansad in Delhi that this will help restore the honour of the 'Hindu rashtra'.
In the Marxists-ruled Kerala, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad Kerala chapter has launched a helpline offering assistance to "Hindus in distress". Named Shivaji Hindu Helpline, the service particularly offers "help for Hindu girls who are being lured into what they call the trap of "love-jihad".
The VHP will put up boards in various places all over the country declaring India a Hindu Rashtra.
Praveen Togadia has said that it metes out injustice.
The Baharatiya Janata Party condemned Uttar Pradesh government's crackdown against VHP yatra from Ayodhya and accused it of playing vote bank politics while Samjwadi Party said it won't let the state "become another Gujarat" or a repeat of Dec 6, 1992, when the Babri mosque was demolished.
'The VHP can establish a forum for providing political protection umbrella to Hindus after Deepawali in November,' Praveen Togadia, said.
The VHP said that those who came to power riding on the Hindu vote and promising common civil code, abolition of Article 370 and constructing Ram Temple at Ayodhya, forgot their pledges, making the Hindu society more insecure.\n
The action came Sunday evening at the joint complaint of Vishva Hindu Parishad, Hindu Jagran Manch, and Bajrang Dal.
Jammu and Kashmir unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad termed the invite by Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit to Kashmiri separatists as "strange and ironical," saying the neighbouring country is playing with the sovereignty of India.
Ali Asghar Zaveri, a Muslim businessman who had purchased a sprawling bungalow in Bhavnagar's Krishna Nagar in 2014, has finally let go off his prized property, under duress from the VHP. Prasanna Zore reports on how the VHP went about its task.
The principal of a private school in Goa has been suspended after a right wing organisation filed a police complaint that some students of class 11 were allegedly taken to a mosque for a workshop and made to perform religious rituals there.
Undeterred by the ban imposed by the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Friday said that it will go ahead with its proposed 'Sankalp Diwas' to take a resolve to launch an agitation for rebuilding the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
A year ago, VHP international president Pravin Togadia had allegedly advised VHP members and other residents of that area to insult Muslims to make them vacate their properties in areas dominated by the majority community.
The VHP has felicitated parents who have more than half a dozen children.
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.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee was involved in the Ram Janma Bhoomi movement which led to the Babri Mosque demolition in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, VHP chief Ashok Singhal said on Friday.
Modi hasn't raised or encouraged the raising of slogans such as 'Jai Sri Ram' at public meetings
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad declared on Thursday that the 84th kosi parikrama yatra at Ayodhya would take place as per schedule and the Uttar Pradesh government would have to face dire consequences if it tried to obstruct it, a VHP spokesperson said.
Charging the Centre with appeasing minorities for electoral gains, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Saturday called for a nationwide agitation to highlight the 'oppression of Hindus'."On one hand, the government is not executing death sentence to Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and on the other it is torturing an innocent person like Sadhvi Pragya Singh, who has been falsely implicated in the Malegaon blast case," VHP leader Venkatesh Abdev said.
Amid escalating tensions over the Sinjauli mosque in Shimla, a Muslim welfare committee on Thursday urged the municipal commissioner to seal the unauthorised portion and also offered to demolish it in accordance with a court order.
A paper found in the assailant's pocket had VHP written on it.
"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.
Dismissing as "irrelevant" and "illogical" a Vishwa Hindu Parishad letter seeking a fatwa declaring India as a friend of Islam, Muslim groups said on Monday that the country does not belong to any particular community and Muslims are very much sons of the soil.
Nearly 450 people were picked up at the Ayodhya and Faizabad railway stations, 400 in Varanasi and 350 in Allahabad as authorites hinted at seeking the army's help if the situation so warranted.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Monday questioned the Centre's assertion before the Supreme Court that Lord Ram himself had destroyed the Ram Setu (Adam's bridge) and said it was a distortion of history."Nowhere in the Kamba Ramayan is it mentioned that Lord Ram destroyed the bridge. It is to appease Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, whose party is a partner in UPA, that Centre is doing such things," VHP president Ashok Singhal said.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Friday criticised Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh for his recent remarks on yoga guru Baba Ramdev, asking him to come clean on the source of funding for his activities. "The Congress party has never acknowledged the contributions of Hindu saints towards preserving the nation's moral fabric. Digvijay Singh's recent remarks against Baba Ramdev are yet another instance of showing disrespect to Hindu saints and their contributions," he said.
The poor turnout of volunteers made it evident that the 'parikrama' had failed to evoke interest among the local population, reports Sharat Pradhan
Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Yogi Adityanath and 24 others accompanying him to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's 'Sankalap Diwas' rally in Ayodhya were on Friday arrested at the railway station in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, as a preventive measure, police said.
The mob ransacked some shops belonging to a particular community and also chanted 'Jai Shri Ram' in front of a mosque in Badshahpur.
Speaking to reporters in Kolkata, VHP vice-president Giriraj Kishore said hundreds of thousands of 'Ram Bhakts' would be involved in the construction of the temple.
The court had asked the West Bengal Zoo Authority to consider renaming the lioness and lion, and wondered why create a controversy by giving such names.
The controversy has sparked reactions across states. The famous Mankameshwar temple in Uttar Pradesh has now banned offerings of 'prasad' bought by devotees from outside and said they can offer homemade 'prasad' or fruits.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks on possible autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday came under sharp criticism from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
A day after Supreme Court deferred the ruling of the Allahabad High Court on the title of the disputed shrine in Ayodhya, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Friday said it would not allow construction of any new mosque in Ayodhya. The decision was taken at a meeting of 45 religious leaders, who are part of the Sant Uchadhikar Samiti (SUS), in Delhi on Friday.
