GAYA (PTI): President of Right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi Feb.17 warmed the Center against use of force on the people attending the party’s rally at New Delhi on Feb.25.
“Any attempt at silencing democratic voice of dissent by the use of the gun could spell doom for the Congress I government,” he told a news conference here on his arrival on a three-day visit to the eastern state of Bihar.
BJP, the largest opposition party in the Lower House, has called the rally to demand midterm elections, to end the ban on its three Rightwing allies and demand the building of Lord Rama temple at the disputed jand in Ayodhya m the nor them state of Uttar Pradesh.
As the security arrangements in and around the capital were being beefed up, union home minister S.B.Chavan last Thursday announced that the government would not allow any political party to hold a rally in Delhi in the next three four months.
Earlier, airport from Kathmandu said Ashok Singhal, secretary-general of the recently banned Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) in India, criticized the Narasimha Rao government for banning the mass rally by the BJP.
The BJP is determined to hold the rally despite the ban, he said, adding that “the BJP should hold the rally.”
“In a democracy, you cannot ban organizations, dissolve governments and ban meetings. It becomes a sort of a fascist government. These tendencies have to be fought,” he maintained and warned of a “headlong confrontation” with the P.V.Narasimha Rao government unless he stepped down making room for a midterm poll.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 19, 1993
