Singhal, Togadia pay Tiwari a visit

Uttaranchal Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari, who was admitted to the Himalayan Hospital at Jollygrant, 20 km from here, recently had two ‘&#...

Uttaranchal Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari, who was admitted to the Himalayan Hospital at Jollygrant, 20 km from here, recently had two ‘‘unusual’’ visitors — VHP working president Ashok Singhal and its international general secretary Praveen Togadia.

The Chief Minister’s aides, however, described the visit as a courtesy call. Togadia, at a recent press conference in Dehra Dun, had described two Congress CMs — Tiwari and his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Digvijay Singh — as supporters of the Ram temple agitation. He had also said that the VHP would seek the support of sympathetic Congress leaders for the construction of the temple.

The VHP leaders, who were on a tour of Rishikesh and Hardwar, met several Hindu sants, including Swami Dayanand Saraswati of Dayanand Ashram, Mahamandaleshwar Vidyanand Giri of Kailash Ashram and Swami Ramsukh Das Maharaj of Swarag Ashram, and apprised them of the VHP’s plans to restart the agitation for construction of the Ram temple.

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Singhal and Togadia expressed their unhappiness at the attitude of the Central Government on the issue.

Singhal warned the Muslims that if they fail to hand over the three shrines at Mathura, Kashi and Ayodhya to Hindus, they would be forced to lose 3,000 mosques in the country.

Tiwari was discharged from hospital today after three weeks, following a carbuncle operation on his back, an official spokesman said here.