World | India
Arrest of 'Hindu terrorists' leaves BJP embarrassed ahead of elections
With assembly elections in key states only weeks away, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is feeling embarrassed after the arrest of a Hindu woman activist on charges of plotting bombings directed at Muslims in two states.
- IANS
- Published: 23:31 October 28, 2008
New Delhi: With assembly elections in key states only weeks away, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is feeling embarrassed after the arrest of a Hindu woman activist on charges of plotting bombings directed at Muslims in two states.
Having campaigned aggressively against Islamists all these years, BJP leaders are finding it hard to explain Pragya Singh Thakur's known links with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student body attached to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
The sharply varying reactions of different BJP leaders - and those from allied groups - appear to expose their predicament vis-a-vis Thakur, also known as Sadhvi Purnachetananandgiri.
"What can I say in the absence of details?" an exasperated BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told IANS. "You tell me the details... What have the police said, what is in the chargesheet?"
At least one senior BJP leader admitted to journalists - but off the record - that Thakur's arrest in Indore in Madhya Pradesh on October 24 was not something anyone could be proud of.
"It is embarrassing for us, particularly because elections are so near," the leader said. The ABVP is ideologically knit with the BJP.
Thakur, 36, a "sadhvi" or woman ascetic, was taken into custody with two male associates, Shyam Bhavarlal Sahu and Shiv Narain Singh, on charges of exploding a powerful bomb in the Maharashtra town of Malegaon and another in Modasa town in Gujarat September 29.
November polls
Both attacks were directed at Muslim gatherings during Ramadan. Five people were killed in Malegaon and one person died in Modasa, contributing to Hindu-Muslim tensions.
Thakur's father, Chandraprakash Thakur, has declared that he was ashamed of her conduct. "If she is sentenced to life imprisonment, I will neither be happy nor sad," he said in Madhya Pradesh.
Madhya Pradesh is one of six states going to the polls from November. In at least four of the states - Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi - the BJP is a major player. It rules three of them.
According to police sources in Maharashtra, the state's Anti Terrorism Squad has also detained five other Hindus, including four men and a woman.
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