May  2003 
Year 9    No.87

Cover Story

Bhopal, March 26: Equating former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya’s murder with the killing of Abhimanyu in Mahabharata, VHP international general secretary Praveen Togadia asked the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime to declare a war on Pakistan or face "civil war in every Indian village".

Addressing an unresponsive motley crowd, Togadia minced no words to criticise Pandya’s killing, the massacre of Kashmiri Pundits in Nadimarg and the arrest of VHP leader Acharya Dharmendra in Ujjain. He gave some prescriptions, too.

Ø Declare war on Pakistan before the country erupts in civil war.

Ø Arm every Hindu youth with an AK-47 rifle to counter jehadis.

Ø Raise the new Khalsa (purified ones) to defend Hindustan. He promised to get one crore youth for the task.

Ø Ban all madrassas.

Ø Give land for the Ram temple.

Ø Hand over the disputed areas in Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi or Hindus will "liberate" 30,000 mosques.

Reacting to Pandya’s murder, Togadia said: "The jehadis are at large everywhere. If the government fails to declare war on Pakistan, there will be civil war in every Indian village."

"From Srinagar to Bhopal to Delhi, Hindus are being challenged. When we go to temples, we get bullets instead of prasad," Togadia said.

The VHP leader lamented that Muslims in the country seemed more concerned about the plight of their "Iraqi brethren" than fellow countrymen like the Kashmiri Pundits. n

(http:// www.telegraphindia.com/1030327/asp/nation/story_1811971.asp)