Four leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad were killed in a Naxal attack at Tumribandha in Kandhamal district of Orissa on Saturday night.
Vehicular movement was badly affected on the busy Vikas Marg, Akshardham, Deepali Chowk, Wazirpur, Moolchand and the Delhi-Jaipur Highway. Carrying VHP flags, slogan-shouting supporters of the Sangh Parivar started assembling at various intersections at about 0900 hours for their two-hour nationwide road blockade stir.
Before the possible arrival of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to New Delhi ahead of the 2014 general election, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have decided to rake up the Ayodhya Ram Mandir issue again.
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 Special Investigating Team probing the 2002 post-Godhra riot cases was prejudiced against him, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia alleged on Tuesday.
The VHP has said that this survey must not lead to reservations in the Armed Forces.
Seven persons have been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for two years by two fast-track courts in Phulbani for their involvement in the communal riots in Kandhamal district in 2008.Twenty one others were acquitted by the fast track courts, which disposed off five cases of rioting, violence and house burning in the aftermath of the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmanananda Saraswati in August, 2008.
Firebrand Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia was arrested on Friday alongwith his supporters by the Orissa Police as they tried to enter riot-hit Kandhamal district, defying a ban on their visit.
It also concurred with the high court order that the confessional statement of the accused were not admissible under law.
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 activists on Friday tore down the posters of Shah Rukh Khan starrer 'My Name is Khan' and caused ruckus in a bid to halt the release of the film in Ahmedabad and Jamnagar in Gujarat.
The VHP leaders presented a memorandum to the President, seeking an immediate ban on the conversion activities of Christian missionaries and foreign funds to these organisations. They also demanded a thorough scrutiny of the accounts of these Christian missionaries and urged the President to ensure that no foreigner is allowed to practice religious conversion in the country.
The 17th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid largely remained a non-event in Ayodhya, in spite of the various programmes organised by political parties to mark the occasion. While the Vishwa Hindu Parishad observed it as 'Shaurya Diwas' (Valour Day) and the Babri Masjid Action Committee and the Samajwadi Party observed it as 'Black Day', the events held by them witnessed negligible participation by the locals.
A few days back, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation issued a notice to Khan, citing various lapses and lack of the building plan approval (for his house), sources said.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh top brass led by its general secretary Mohan Bhagwat on Monday met Bharatiya Janata Party president Lal Kishenchand Advani
Vedanti warned that the Hindus would march to New Delhi and give a befitting reply if Karunanidhi did not withdraw his utterances on Lord Ram by November 20.
Protesting the government's decision to go ahead with the Sethusamudram project, the Sangh Parivar and its affiliated organisations on Wednesday staged road blockades at various places in Mumbai and Delhi.
Shops were open and bus and train services were unaffected.
'The VHP can establish a forum for providing political protection umbrella to Hindus after Deepawali in November,' Praveen Togadia, said.
The central committee of the banned Communist Party of India - Maoist had decided to eliminate Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmananda Saraswati as he was opposing them in Kandhamal, according to the confessions of an arrested Maoist commander, who was allegedly involved in the killing in August last year.P Rama Rao alias Uday, arrested on April 20 from Raygada district, told interrogators that he was part of the 16-member Maoist team that gunned down Saraswati.
Business establishments and markets remained closed as BJP, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists took to the streets shouting anti-Congress slogans and burning effigies Sonia Gandhi.
When some people tried to bury the carcasses, a mid-night drama unfolded with Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal workers raising slogans of 'Jai Shree Ram' protesting against the 'brutality on the animals'.
The Gujarat high court on Monday allowed the Special Investigation Team to take voice samples of the two accused in the Naroda Gam case for matching it with the audio-video evidence in the case.Justice M R Shah, hearing the SIT's appeal challenging the special riot court's order, allowed the agency to collect voice samples of Babu Bajrangi and former Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Jaydeep Patel, accused in the Naroda Gam case.
The petition, filed by B P Singhal, stated that the government's decision to remove the governors of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Goa and Gujarat was unconstitutional, as the Constitution categorically provides for a fixed tenure of five years for them
The BJP, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad have led violent protests against the movie, a story of a lesbian relationship, all over the country.
Ashok Singhal asks the prime minister to mend his "secular" ways.
The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday issued notice to state minister Maya Kodnani on an application filed by the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team for cancellation of her anticipatory bail in the 2002 Naroda Patia riot case.
The Supreme Court today decided to hear a petition seeking laying down of guidelines for preventing communal violence like the Kandhamal riots in Orissa in which the Christian community was targeted after the assassination of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader.
Police said a case has been registered against the Hurriyat leader and others for preaching secessionism on Eid-ul-Azha at Sheedhi Chowk on Monday.
Three days after she was declared as an absconder, Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani was on Thursday granted anticipatory bail by a local court in some post-Godhra riot cases of 2002 being probed afresh by a Supreme Court. appointed Special Investigating Team.
Speaking to reporters in Jammu, VHP international president Ashok Singhal said Vajpayee has weakened the country and has shown little regard for the Hindu sentiment
The shooting of Kathryn Bigelow's film on Osama bin Laden in Chandigarh to depict the killing of the al Qaeda leader in Abbottabad was stalled on Friday by Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists, who objected to the hoisting of Pakistani flags.
With just two days to go for the Ayodhya title suits verdict, social organisations and individuals are making peace appeals through SMS.
A day before the Special Bench of the Allahabad High Court meets to make a last ditch effort to find an amicable solution to the Ayodhya case, leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Vishwa Hindu Parishad held a marathon meeting in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss the issue.
Whether the Ayodhya case is settled through reconciliation or through a judgment is something that remains to be seen. An application had been filed before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court seeking a direction to both parties to settle this matter amicably so as to avoid any controversy that might follow after the judgment is pronounced.
Sonal Shah, the first Indian-American to be inducted in United States President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, has formally renounced her affiliation with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which has been accused of fomenting violence against Muslims and Christians in India.Shah, former member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has said if she could have anticipated the outfit's role in the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat, she would have never associated with its US branch.
