The Vishwa Hindu Parishad International General Secretary, Pravin Togadia, today demanded that India be declared a Hindu Rasthra as the secularism practised in the country had given only a "second class status to the Hindus".
Addressing a gathering of VHP activists after a "trishul diksha'' programme organised here, he said what had been allowed to happen in the name of secularism was an "unchecked attack on Hindu symbols of honour". `This kind of secularism could no longer be tolerated and secularists must not take Hindus for granted. The youth force being created by the VHP alone could bring a sense of pride among the Hindu masses and force the politicians to understand the feeling of the majority community."
Mr. Togadia alleged that the Islamic centre of studies in Uttar Pradesh, Darul Ulum Deoband, was spreading terrorism all over the world and that fundamentalists such as Mullah Omar of Afghanistan, the mastermind of the Godhra burning of karsewaks, Maulvi Umar, and the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, were the followers of the Deoband school of Islamic theology. "The school should be closed in the interest of both Hindus and Muslims". Mr. Togadia pointed out that though there were 52 Muslim majority countries in the world, none was secular. "Hindus had now realised that they could no longer accept weakness and non-violence as virtue." He claimed that the madrassas run by Muslims were the breeding ground for terrorists. If terrorism was only a result of misinterpretation of Islam, why has no Muslim religious body issued a `fatwa' against terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, he asked. He also wanted to know why only Hindu temples like the Akshardham at Ahmedabad and Raghunath Mandir at Jammu were targeted by the terrorists and mosques always remained safe. Earlier, Mr. Togadia attended a similar trishul diksha programme at Hardoi. His diksha programme at Gorakhpur tomorrow has, however, been banned by the District Magistrate as some parts of the city continued to remain under curfew following communal clashes during Holi celebrations.