10-13-2008, 06:39 AM
<b>Lalu, Paswan are hypocrites</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Due to disagreement among the Ministers, the Union Cabinet in its meeting held on October 8 failed to take a final call on whether to ban the Bajrang Dal and dismiss the Naveen Patnaik Government in Orissa. Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and Steel and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan were quite keen on seeing the Orissa Government go, but some other Ministers emphasised caution in imposition of President's rule on the State. Mr Yadav and Mr Paswan were also joined by Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh in voicing the demand to ban the Bajrang Dal. Again, some Ministers disagreed and advised that more evidence be collected against the outfit before coming to any conclusions.
If Mr Yadav and Mr Paswan's demands were genuinely to do with the safety of the common people in Orissa, then they should have also raised the issue of recent violence in Assam in which at least 49 people have been killed and thousands left homeless. Moreover, they should have also asked for the dismissal of the Maharashtra Government which has failed to take action against Mr Raj Thackeray and his goons for terrorising north Indians and forcing thousands of them to flee the State. The truth is that they were seeking the dismissal of the Orissa Government because it is a BJD-BJP coalition Government.
<b>It may be recalled that Mr Yadav, Mr Paswan, the spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party, Mr Amar Singh, and the Congress have publicly said that SIMI and Bajrang Dal are "two sides of the same coin" and that if SIMI is banned Bajrang Dal should be banned too. The so-called 'secular' politicians, intellectuals and the media accuse the RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal of attacking minority communities and equate them with Al Qaeda, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba. This is nothing but a deliberate attempt to shift focus from the Government's abysmal failure to tackle terrorism.</b> The RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal are public organisations well within the reach of the law of the land. Whereas jihadi terrorist groups carry out their activities covertly or beyond the reach of the state.
Tragically, we have a Government whose Ministers are virtually saying that violence against some citizens and jihad against the Indian state is one and the same thing. Neither can be condoned, nor can they be equated. Mr Yadav and Mr Paswan are nothing but hypocrites and must be condemned.
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If Mr Yadav and Mr Paswan's demands were genuinely to do with the safety of the common people in Orissa, then they should have also raised the issue of recent violence in Assam in which at least 49 people have been killed and thousands left homeless. Moreover, they should have also asked for the dismissal of the Maharashtra Government which has failed to take action against Mr Raj Thackeray and his goons for terrorising north Indians and forcing thousands of them to flee the State. The truth is that they were seeking the dismissal of the Orissa Government because it is a BJD-BJP coalition Government.
<b>It may be recalled that Mr Yadav, Mr Paswan, the spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party, Mr Amar Singh, and the Congress have publicly said that SIMI and Bajrang Dal are "two sides of the same coin" and that if SIMI is banned Bajrang Dal should be banned too. The so-called 'secular' politicians, intellectuals and the media accuse the RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal of attacking minority communities and equate them with Al Qaeda, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba. This is nothing but a deliberate attempt to shift focus from the Government's abysmal failure to tackle terrorism.</b> The RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal are public organisations well within the reach of the law of the land. Whereas jihadi terrorist groups carry out their activities covertly or beyond the reach of the state.
Tragically, we have a Government whose Ministers are virtually saying that violence against some citizens and jihad against the Indian state is one and the same thing. Neither can be condoned, nor can they be equated. Mr Yadav and Mr Paswan are nothing but hypocrites and must be condemned.
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