VHP dares Gehlot to ban trishul in state

‘‘With this trishul a person can’t even shave or make a carrot salad,’’ Dharmender adds, brandishing the weapon. ‘‘There has been no disturbance in peace so far either by distributing trishuls or keeping them. There is no question of violence from a religious symbol.’’

In the past ten years, the VHP claims to have distributed 68,000 trishuls in the state. While they deny they have stepped up their Trishul Deeksha programme, the state government says the number has gone up.

‘‘Earlier, they were doing it on a smaller scale, distributing five or 50-odd trishuls at a time. Now they are doing it on a large scale, the numbers are in thousands,’’ says Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Singh Shektawat.

But he quickly adds that the government is not planning just to ban trishuls but ‘‘any other weapon that will disrupt communal harmony’’. Warning of a statewide agitation, the VHP said the trishul is a weapon for self-defence and also pointed out that the size of the trishuls was within the allowed limits under the Arms Act.

‘‘All sadhus keep trishuls and not the small ones like ours, but the big ones. If all of them have to go to Chief Minister for licenses, he is going to have a big problem on his hands,’’ says Dharmender.

The VHP’s entire contention is that the state government is not imposing bans on things that matter like ‘‘sleazy movies, gutkas, bottled water and madarsas imparting militant training’’.

‘‘The government keeps saying they don’t want Rajasthan to go the Gujarat way but with this decision it looks like Gehlot wants just that. Our rath yatra was banned in Gujarat and you have the results before you. If they ban the trishuls here, they will see its result in the next few months,’’ he warns.