VHP rath yatra stopped again
Tribune News Service and agencies

NEW DELHI, Oct 29 (PTI) — The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) rath yatra protesting the papal’s visit was prevented by the Madhya Pradesh Government from entering the state for the second day today even as Sangh Parivar outfits spoke in different voices on the issue of apology from the Pontiff for alleged atrocities by the church in India.

The yatra, which was thwarted from entering Madhya Pradesh by the Jhabua district authorities yesterday, made another attempt today to cross into the state from a village in Ratlam district.

VHP sources here said those participating in the yatra were detained but Ratlam SP Sanjay Mane said yatris were prevented from entering the state and later returned to Banswara in Rajasthan.

VHP Organising Secretary Jugal Kishore said the yatra programme in Rajasthan would go on schedule and enter Uttar Pradesh at Agra on November 1 before reaching New Delhi four days later to coincide with the Pontiff’s visit.

The VHP alleged in a press release that the yatra was prevented from entering Jhabua at the behest of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and condemned the decision of the Madhya Pradesh Government as a "murder of democracy".

Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, however, defended the decision to bar the yatra saying the VHP’s campaign against the Pope could vitiate the atmosphere.

He had issued a statement last night asserting that his government would not tolerate any individual or organisation which tried to disturb communal harmony in the state.

The VHP asserted its rath yatra from would pass through Goa Rajasthan as per schedule and reach Delhi on the eve of the papal visit, a report said.

Public meetings had been scheduled in Chittoregarh and Bhilwara tomorrow, while rallies were to be held in Jaipur and Ajmer on October 31, a VHP spokesman said. Public meetings would be held in Dausa and Bharatpur on November 1 before the yatra entered Uttar Pradesh to reach Delhi on November 5.

The yatra had already passed through Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and parts of Rajasthan before it was prevented from entering Jhabua.

The VHP said it would hold dharnas across the country from October 25 to November 2.

VHP Vice-President Acharya Giriraj Kishore said today that the Pope's visit was a "calculated gameplan to rob" the country's culture.

"His (Pope's) agenda during itinerary included equipping every Indian with a copy of the Bible by 2000 and to convert each of them into Christian by year 2025," he said at a press conference here in Patna.

Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna, meanwhile, today urged the Prime Minister to put down the "orchestrated hate campaign against the visit of the Pope.

Meanwhile, in an expression of regret over the government’s advice to the Vice-President, Mr Krishan Kant, not to attend the inter-faith function during the Pope’s visit on November 7, the All India Catholic Union (AICU) today described the Centre’s stand as a "specious argument".

In a statement, the AICU’s National Secretary, Mr John Dayal, said the government’s advice "seems to be quiet in consonance with the statements issued by various members of the ruling party and its ideological associates in the Sangh Parivar who have been staging protests and yatras against the Pope, our faith and our Church".

Although the Prime Minister and the Home Minister have welcomed the Pope, there has been no condemnation yet from the highest political leadership of the organisations involved in these actions which have tarnished India’s image at home and abroad, Mr Dayal said.

Earlier, the Catholic Church also called the government’s advice to the Vice-President as "improper".

In response to a question, the Catholic Church spokesman, Dr Dominic Emmanuel, said the word "secular" in the Indian Constitution did not mean to be "a religious or irreligious" but showing equal respect to all religions of the country.

Meanwhile, the BJP reiterated its opposition to any kind of protests in the country against the visit of the Pope.

At the same time, the BJP spokesman, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, asserted that the party was also agitated against conversion by inducement.

"Money is coming to this country from outside for the purpose and it must be looked into", Mr Naidu said, while clarifying that the party was not against the money coming to this country for welfare purposes.

Calling for a national debate on the issue in which eminent people belonging to different religions should participate, Mr Naidu said it was necessary as conversions and reconversions was causing social tensions in some parts of the country.

Meanwhile, the RSS’s tribal wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram reiterated VHP’s demand for a Papal apology for alleged atrocities on Hindus by the Catholic Church in Goa during the Portuguese rule saying the Church cannot escape answerability for its past "misdeeds".