Thursday, September 04, 2008 Left urges Prez to ban VHP, Dal A delegation led by Brinda Karat urges the government to put the outfits at least under 'serious monitoring' if it could not ban them
New Delhi: The Left parties on Thursday knocked at the doors of Rashtrapati Bhavan requesting President Pratiba Patil to ban saffron outfits, VHP and Bajrang Dal, for their "terrorist-like" activities in Orissa and other parts of the country. A delegation led by senior CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat met Patil this afternoon and told the President that if the government could not ban these outfits, at least it should put them under "serious monitoring". The delegation, also comprising senior CPI leaders D Raja and Gurudas Dasgupta and CPI(M) MP Suresh Kurup, asked Patil to direct the Orissa government to rein in the saffron outfits which are involved in "killing" number of Christians in the state. "The Centre is not doing any thing. It has remained a mute spectator in the whole episode. We demand strong and stringent action against the culprits," Karat told reporters after the meeting. Dasgupta said the delegation told the President that they have "no faith" in the judicial enquiry ordered into the killings of Christians in Orissa and demanded a CBI inquiry into the incidents. "We also requested the President to prevail upon the Centre to ban a proposed yatra by the saffron outfits in Orissa carrying the ashes of a VHP leader who was killed. This yatra will create further communal tension in the state," Dasgupta said. © Copyright 2008 PTI. All rights reserved.
