VHP too does its bit

Working president of the VHP, Ashok Singhal, told reporters that the meaning of secularism was equal in respect of all sects and communities.

“Saraswati, Mahalakshmi, Mahadurga, Ganesh, Mahadev, Ram and Krishna are cultural heritage of Bharat and should be respected as such,” he said.

Religion was interlinked with heritage and “if there is an attempt to insult the heritage, it does not reflect the principle of secularism properly. It is the height of communalism,” he said.

Singhal concentrated his attack on the Congress and the Left Front fortheir stand on the issue at yesterday’s state education ministers’ conference but ducked questions on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s silence on the Opposition’s criticism. “What the government does is not my concern,” he said.

To another question, he said that he was also criticising the BJP’s allies – Akali Dal, Telugu Desam Party and the Trinamool Congress for protesting against the Saraswati Vandana.

Stressing on the education system in accordance with the vedas, he said that Swami Dayanand Saraswati had rightly given the call of “back to the vedas”.Meanwhile, the AIADMK, an ally of the BJP, attacked Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi for attempting to “push through a sectarian agenda” and said that it was against any proposal which would “erode and undermine” the secular credentials of the Constitution.

In a statement from Chennai, Jayalalitha said that her party was not in agreement with any proposal that would “jeopardise” the interests of secularism,national unity and integrity.

“It is regrettable that the HRD ministry attempted to sneak the agenda through in spite of stiff opposition from various state governments and political parties.” `’The BJP, the dominant party of the coalition, should realise that it has no people’s mandate to push through its own controversial agenda which is not entirely devoid of validity,” she said.