Raj Thackeray a separatist, punish him: Singhal

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) International President Ashok Singhal today said Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief was a separatist and should be punished for insulting the national language, Hindi.

''Humiliating the lingua franca is an open treason. Such treacherous people should be given the hardest of punishments,'' Mr Singhal said while speaking to reporters here. He was fuelling the spirit of separatism by opposing Hindi for the love of his mother tongue, Mr Singhal said.

However, separatist elements had never been able to harm the country's harmonious fabric, because the cultural roots were profound, Mr Singhal Said. ''Raj cannot do anything. The pressure being mounted by him and his party will fizzle out soon,'' he said.

Asserting that Raj came from a decent family and had started with a ''good ideology'', Mr Singhal said the MNS chief went wayward somewhere along the way. ''Hope the Lord guides him down the right path,'' the VHP functionary said.

Replying to questions, Mr Singhal said the country had an ''impotent'' government that was being openly challenged by China.

''China is waging a proxy war against India by supplying arms to Maoists. It has occupied Tibet and opposed the Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh. Its interference in India's internal affairs should not be tolerated,'' he said, while advocating the use of the army and the air force against the Maoists.

In reply to another question, Mr Singhal dismissed as baseless the claim made by Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray that Shiv Sainiks had demolished the disputed structure at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

''If this was so, why didn't he dare to come there? It would be wrong to say that a particular group demolished the structure, because there were four lakh karsevaks there.

There definitely were activists of the Shiv Sena there, including former Maharashtra chief minister Manohar Joshi, who told me that he was one of my karsevaks,'' Mr Singhal said. ''The police told us that they would leave once we were there,'' he added.

-- (UNI) -- 22BY2.xml

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