Premium
This is an archive article published on April 20, 2003

Togadia stuck, Parishad dithers

With the district court here postponing the hearing on his bail application till Monday, VHP leader Pravin Togadia will complete a week in t...

.

With the district court here postponing the hearing on his bail application till Monday, VHP leader Pravin Togadia will complete a week in the Ajmer Central Jail tomorrow — the longest spell he has faced inside a cell since he embarked on his trishul diksha campaign in different parts of the country.

Other state governments, such as Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, have earlier tried to stop him in his tracks but let him off soon enough. District officials here, echoing the sentiments expressed by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Jaipur, said the decision to release Togadia on bail rests solely with the courts. On its part, the prosecution will put up a firm case against his release even if the VHP decides to move the high court.

Today’s adjournment of the case was prompted by the VHP counsel’s demand that the entire transcript of Togadia’s speech here on April 13 (on the basis of which the FIR was filed and he was arrested) be made available to them. Togadia’s local counsel Onkar Singh Lakhawat said the full transcript was necessary to enable them to argue the case. The VHP’s own copy of the video had been confiscated by police, he said, a charge later denied by the Superintendent of Police.

Story continues below this ad

Additional district judge Deepak Kachwaha directed the prosecution to keep the full transcript ready on Monday morning when the bail application hearing will take place.

Describing it as a ‘‘right under Hindutva’’, VHP international president Ashok Singhal today said the trishul diksha programme would be intensified in Rajasthan. ‘‘Even if Parishad leader Pravin Togadia is in judicial custody, trishul diksha would continue everywhere…. Diksha is not a politically motivated plan of the VHP but is a right under Hindutva,’’ Singhal told a press meet here.

Trident distribution to Bajrang Dal activists would continue as per schedule in Bali, Bheenmal and Nokha in Rajasthan, he said.

The seemingly dilatory tactics adopted by the VHP today indicated that the Sangh Parivar is still trying to work out a strategy to counter the Rajasthan government’s so far successful crackdown on its activities. VHP vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore said every prant kendra of the VHP throughout the country will send petitions to the Prime Minister and the President against the arrest.

Story continues below this ad

Meanwhile, the Gehlot government has made it clear that if Togadia resumes his ‘‘illegal’’ activities if and when he is released on bail, the government will once again repeat what it did on April 13. There is no ban on religious meetings, but any distribution of the so-called trishuls or inflammatory speeches will be dealt with firmly, a government spokesman said.

Latest Comment
Post Comment
Read Comments
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement