Gowda demands ban on Bajrang Dal

New Delhi, Sep 21 (UNI) Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has demanded a ban on Bajrang Dal and Sri Rama Sena ''for perpetrating senseless violence'' against minorities in Karnataka and Orissa.

''A blanket ban on the activites of the Bajrang Dal and its sister organisations will send a categorical message across the world that secular India will not tolerate fascism, fanaticism and fundamentalism of any colour or kind,'' the former Karnataka chief minister said yesterday in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Equating the Bajrang Dal with terrorists, Mr Gowda said he saw no difference between planting bombs and stabbing people, burning places of worship and attacking orphanages and convents.

He said violence and attacks on innocent people, irrespective of their religious beliefs, had to be condemned in all its manifestations.

''Terrorists of all hues and shades are undoubtedly merchants of death and one cannot be excluded just because he chants 'Bharat Mati ki jai' and holds the tricolour even while tearing apart Mother India's secular fabric and causing irreparable damage to her unity, as in Orissa and Karnataka, and territorial integrity, as in Jammu and Kashmir,'' he wrote.

UNI YJ RP VC1821