BJP claims bandh 'total'

New Delhi, Jul 3 (UNI) The BJP today claimed that its call for a nation-side bandh today received spontaneous response from the people and it was a peaceful 'total bandh' in protest against the revocation of the land allotted to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board by the Jammu and Kashmir Government.

The bandh was observed against the attack on secularism, plurity, and democratic fabrics of the country, BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said, accusing both the Centre and the State Government of playing politics to divide the country.

Former BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu said the Congress-led UPA had always been pursuing an appeasement politics towards Muslims and insulting the religious sentiments of the Hindus. It was Congress which had raked up controversy over Ram Setu and now its government in J&K revoked the land alloted on lease to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board to facilitate pilgrims to Amarnath.

Alleging that the revocation of the land was done keeping in mind vote bank politics, Mr Naidu asked the Centre and the State Government why the land was allotted in the first place and even approved by the Cabinet. "Was it meant to be cancelled later," he said, adding that the UPA had bowed before the separatist forces.

The BJP, he said, would continue an agitation on the issue till the land was restored to the Shrine Board. The party, he said, would organise rallies in towns and cities to highlight the government's apathy towards the majority Hindus. The rallies would be addressed by the national leaders, he added.

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