A ploy to divert attention: Mulayam

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW, SEPT. 28. The Samajwadi Party leader, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, today said the Centre's decision to ban the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) had been taken to divert people's attention from the failures of the BJP-led Governments at the Centre and the States. The move was intended to put a large section of the population in a state of terror and to create doubts about their integrity, he added.

Talking to newspersons here, Mr. Yadav urged the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the ban. The Government should come out with all the facts in its possession, gathered by itself and also from State Governments which had demanded the ban. If his party found the material sufficient to warrant the ban, it would support the move.

The statements issued by the Principal Secretary, Home and Director-General of Police, Uttar Pradesh, alleging that SP leaders had incited the crowds to indulge in violence were far from the truth, he added. Mr. Yadav demanded a ban on the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and the Shiv Sena saying his party was ready to supply material, sufficient to justify a ban on these outfits.

`Appeasement'

PTI reports:

Meanwhile, the Bajrang Dal has said the demand by some parties to ban it was just to appease the Muslim community. The deputy national convener of the group, Mr. Prakash Sharma, said in Kanpur today that the Bajrang Dal was a nationalist outfit devoted to the cause of religion, culture and nation and the motives of leaders demanding a ban on the party was just to please Muslims.

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Section  : National
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