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VHP threatens legal action against tribunal

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD Nov. 22. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has threatened to drag the "Concerned Citizens' Tribunal'' to court and described its final report on the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat as a move to "protect'' the radical Islamic jehadis responsible for the Godhra train carnage.

Questioning the timing of the report's release, the VHP international general secretary, Pravin Togadia, said here today that it was apparently aimed at benefiting "Sonia Gandhi's Congress party'' in the December 12 elections to the State Assembly and amounted to interference in the democratic process.

Claiming that the report was a mere "reproduction'' of the "anti-Hindu propaganda magazine,'' Communal Combat, published from Mumbai, and had "no credibility,'' Dr. Togadia gave time to the tribunal and the members of the "Concerned Citizens for Justice and Peace,'' who constituted the tribunal, to tender an apology within 24 hours or face defamation charges in court.

He was in touch with legal experts to challenge the derogatory remarks made against him in the report.

He had been charged with preventing his hospital staff from providing treatment to Muslim patients injured in the riots on February 28. But he was away from Gujarat between February 17 and March 25.

Dr. Togadia had also produced taped version of his speech at Tarsali near Vadodara where, the report alleged, he made derogatory remarks against Muslims.

``These are proof enough to conclude that the honourable retired judges in the tribunal did not take pains to make any inquiry on their own but accepted on face value whatever they were told by those who set up the tribunal.''

By remaining silent on the Godhra carnage, the tribunal had demonstrated that the leftists and the secularist forces had ganged up with the radical Muslim organisations such as the Tableegh Jammat, to "defame Hindus at the national and international level," he alleged.

``The VHP rejects the tribunal report which is far from the truth,'' he added

The Gujarat Congress, however, took a serious note of the tribunal's report and said the charge of State complicity in the post-Godhra riots should be taken into account by the people.

Its spokesman, Hasmukh Patel, said the report had revealed that the Sangh Parivar had planned the post-Godhra violence.

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