Digvijay urges ban on communal bodies

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, JUNE 23. The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr. Digvijay Singh, has sent a forceful reminder to the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, emphasising the need to impose a ban on organisations like Bajrang Dal and Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

The ban on communal organisations is necessary and in the interest of safeguarding harmonious relations among the various communities, the Chief Minister has asserted.

Mr. Singh had earlier in April this year written to Mr. Advani and drawn his attention towards the activities of the religious fundamentalist organisations operating in the country while stressing the need to impose a ban on them.

In his latest letter to Mr. Advani, the Chief Minister has pointed out that Madhya Pradesh has always tried to curb the activities of communal organisations that are increasingly proving to be ``detrimental to the basic heterogeneous fabric of our society''.

Mr. Singh has pointed out that in the interest of maintaining communal peace and harmony, the State Government had not permitted the all- India convention of Bajrang Dal that was proposed to be held in Bhopal in February last year. The State Government similarly displayed its impartiality by not permitting an all-India convention of SIMI in Indore in November 2000 and again recently, blocked another proposed conference of SIMI, which was scheduled to be held at Seoni on June 10. Even in October 1999, VHP's `Rath Yatra' under the banner of ``Sanskritik Raksha Manch'' had not been allowed to cross the Rajasthan border and enter Madhya Pradesh.

The Chief Minister said it has been observed that Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have started organising a series of camps to give armed training to their members. Such training camps were recently organised by the VHP in Indore from May 13 to May 20, in Jabalpur from May 24 to May 31, and in Gwalior from June 3 to June 10. In these camps members of Durga Vahini were given arms training and this was also widely publicised, the Chief Minister has said adding that such armed camps are being organized at many places across the country.

It is clear that Bajrang Dal and VHP are organising such camps with the clear objective of creating a kind of private army of its cadres which could prove disastrous to the unity and integrity of our country, Mr. Singh has pointed out in his letter. ``If these organisations are given a free hand to train and create such private armed cadres the end results will be catastrophic,'' he cautions.

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