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.
Samriddhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha, journalists with HW News Network, were produced before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Gomati district Shubhra Nath, who granted them bail on bail bonds of Rs 7,500.
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.
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.
Cricketer Harbhajan Singh, actor Mona Singh and an entertainment channel were on Thursday issued summons by a local court for allegedly hurting religious sentiments with their Ravana-Sita dance act in a reality show last year. The summons, returnable by April 22, were issued by First Class Judicial Magistrate Rajneesh on a petition filed by NGO activist and local advocate, Arvind Thakur, and spokesman of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Vijay Singh.
Days after the district court ruled that a priest can perform prayers in a cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, a petitioner on Monday filled a plea seeking an ASI survey of all other closed basements in the complex.
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.
More than 5,000 security men were deployed and a helicopter pressed into surveillance on Wednesday in riot-hit Kandhamal district of Orissa as Christians there prepared to celebrate Christmas amidst a feeling of insecurity.The government sealed all entry points to Kandhamal, which witnessed large-scale violence following the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmananda Saraswati.The state government has identified Sambalpur and Sundergarh as sensitive districts.
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.
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.
"We are not ready to part with any bit of land in or around the disputed Ayodhya site, where we wish to erect a grand temple to mark the birthplace of Lord Ram", VHP supremo Ashok Singhal told a press conference in Lucknow on Wednesday afternoon.
RSS leader Dhanu Pradhan, who was said to be on the Maoists' hitlist, was gunned down by three suspected extremists at Kumarigaon village under Brahmanigaon police station area in Kandhamal at around 1300 hrs, sources said.
"As the government has failed in matters of internal security, the Bajrang Dal has started constituting security committees," Surendra Jain, a spokesman of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a sister Sangh Parivar outfit, told PTI in Lucknow on Wednesday.
With just two days to go for the Ayodhya title suits verdict, social organisations and individuals are making peace appeals through SMS.
The demand for imposing a ban on Sangh Parivar outfits Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishas on Monday gained momentum with the Congress saying these organisations were a "suitable case" for such action. "Bajrang Dal is a suitable case for ban... Also the VHP," Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said in Delhi.
Top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda has claimed responsibility for the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and four others, which lead to large scale flare-up in Orissa's Kandhamal district, according to two local television channels.
Ashok Singhal asks the prime minister to mend his "secular" ways.
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.
A Bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat, however, said that it was leaving the option of approaching the magistrate concerned for recording the first information report against two leaders to the aggrieved individuals.
"The findings of National Commission for Minorities and National Women's Commission on communal violence in Karnataka have established the diabolical role of Bajrang Dal. Dal leaders have openly claimed responsibility for attacks on Christians in Orissa and Karnataka," Paswan said accusing it of espousing a divisive agenda.
The communal violence in Kandhmal in the aftermath of the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and four of his disciples, has so far claimed 26 lives, Orissa Home Secretary Tarun Kanti Mishra said in Bhubhaneshwar on Monday.
Alarmed over fresh violence ahead of the festival season, the Orissa government on Monday asked the Centre to allow it to retain Central para-military forces dispatched in the wake of Kandhamal riots till October end, official sources said. Orissa has already received 40 companies (one company comprises 90 personnel) of Central para-military forces after communal violence erupted following the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmananda Saraswati.
The Orissa government on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that the situation in Kandhamal district of Orissa, where violence broke out following the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmananad Saraswati on August 24, has considerably improved.According to the affidavit of the state government, VHP leader Praveen Togadia was not permitted to take out a procession with the ashes of the slain Swami on September 7. There has been no fresh violence.
Amid suspicion of Maoists' involvement in the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmananada Saraswati and four others at Jaleshpeta ashram in Orissa's Kandhamal district, the police on Wednesday issued sketches of two suspected killers. "The crime branch has issued the sketches seeking information from the public on the two suspected persons," DGP Gopal Chandra Nanda said.
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 Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Orissa government to place its report, relating to steps taken to protect the lives of people belonging to the Christian community in riot-hit Kandhamal district, by Thursday.The apex court also asked the state government to submit an affidavit on whether permission was granted to Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia for his proposed yatra, carrying the ashes of slain leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.
Expressing doubts over the Maoists' claim of having killed leader Lakshmananda Saraswati, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Monday insisted that 'a sect of Christians' was behind the murder that has sparked widespread rioting in Orissa.VHP General Secretary Pravin Togadia said his organisation and the Maoists have no reasons for confrontation and the Maoists could have made the claims under 'Communist Influence' to divert attention.
Prohibitory orders were on Sunday clamped in communally-sensitive Kandhmal district and security tightened across Orissa after the killing of a prominent Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader and his five associates sparked protests in the state with a prayer house being torched.
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.
VHP working president Ashok Singhal said Advani is only good as a stop-gap BJP president.
Raj Thackeray should apologise to all North Indians with folded hands, MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said.
Vowing not to give an 'inch of land belonging to Lord Jagannath of Puri' for the proposed Vedanta University in Orissa, Vishwa Hindu Parishad international secretary General Pravin Bhai Togadia on Wednesday said his outfit would fight tooth and nail to protect the 'land of the Lord'. "We vehemently oppose the move of the Naveen Patnaik-led government to hand over thousands of acres of land belonging to Lord Jagannath and the VHP," he said.
At the dharam sansad, a resolution was adopted to mobilise support for a Ram temple from March 5 to 24, and give a call for Dilli Chalo.
The VHP has warned against any such move.
The Special Investigation Team probing the alleged role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in post-Godhra killing of ex-Congress Member of Parliament Ehasan Jafri on Friday submitted its report to the Supreme Court.
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.