Mumbai, December 27: A day after threatening Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi of dire consequences, the hardcore militant Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Ashok Singhal went in a denial mode on Saturday evening while speaking to journalists.
“My statement on Sonia made at a VHP function in Aurangabad on Friday has been distorted and misunderstood. When I said that Sonia would face dire consequences like her mother in law former Premier Indira Gandhi, I wanted to convey that like Gandhi who lost elections after Emergency, Sonia would suffer the same fate and would have to forego her place in the politics,” he clarified.
Reiterating that he did not agree with Sonia’s statement that the Ayodhya verdict cannot condone the demolition of Babri Masjid, Singhal said: “The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has accepted that the disputed land belonged to the Hindus and was the birthplace of their deity Ram. We do not have any hate for the Muslims, and the example of this is that the Hindus did not cause any damage to the 18 Masjids in Ayodhya. We just want the Muslims to give up their claim to the disputed area, and allow the Hindus to construct the temple peacefully,” Singhal stated.
Launching attack on the Congress, the VHP leader said that there can be peace between the Hindus and the Muslims, but it was the Congress which did not want peace to prevail between the two communities and was provoking the Muslims.
Referring to the allegations that RSS was a deadly terrorist organization and was involved in terrorism, Singhal refuting the allegations referring to Sonia as a Vatican agent, said that by making such baseless allegations she was trying to damage the credibility of the RSS, its patriotism and social services.
“There is nothing new in the dirty tactics of the Congress and by making wild and baseless allegations, the Congress was trying to defame the RSS and the other Hindu outfits and this is just to deflect attention of the people from the large number of scams in the party.”
Reacting to Singhal’s summersault on the Sonia issue, a senior state Congress leader said: “The VHP chief realized that he was on a sticky wicket after making the ‘stupid’ and provocative statement against our party chief. Singhal knows that his utterances would not go without a counter response and also knows that he would have to face the music from the government. And did Singhal ever make a logical and sensible statement?” the leader questioned.
Ankush Shinde, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader from Andheri asked as to since when had Singhal and the RSS started having soft corner for the Muslims. “No party or organization has a hatred for the Muslims to the quantum that the VHP has for the community. VHP can never befriend the Muslims, and this is a known fact,” Shinde added.
-Agencies