In its enthusiasm to ride the so-called “Ram Bhakti wave’ the VHP has played the cruelest of jokes on the people of India. That of creating non-existent martyrs and even branding lives people as ‘martyrs’ for its cause.
All this started on February 20 when the VHP Leadership published a list of martyr’s sevaks who had died during the kar seva agitation in U.P. in October November 1990. The list comprising 59 names generated great interest because the toll on those fateful days was controversial and the exact figures were much awaited. (The VHP claimed that 36 kar sevaks died in police firing in Ayodhya on October 30 and November 2 and that 33 others had been killed in other places during the kar seva agitation. In addition it asserted 23 kar sevaks were missing.) There were rumors and even newspaper reports that more than 100 people had died.
December 27, 1990 the Chandigarh Shekhar government stated in Parliament that only 15 Kar sevaks had died in the police firing in Ayodhya and had even challenged those who were projecting a biggest figure to come out with a single additional name The list released by VHP working president V.H. Dalmia and joint general secretary Acharya Girija Raja Kishore with much fanfare was in answer to the government challenge. While releasing it the leaders also claimed that this was only the first list. Many more names were to come was the indication.
But enquiries in Uttar Pradesh alone show that the first list itself is a false document meant to stir the Ram bhakts all over the country and gain political mileage for the VHP associate the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Of the names in Uttar Pradesh the real people killed are the ones on the government list also. The number comes to 11 but the VHP claims to have 25 martyrs in UP.
Out of the other 12 whom the VHP claims to be martyrs four are still alive. Five others died for various other reasons which had no direct relation to the kar seva and even many years before 1990. One is nonexistent and his personality is shrouded in mystery. Two others suffered injuries in the kar seva but died many days later at their own place.
There is a pattern in the selection of fake martyrs by the people of the VHP. They have mostly taken old men who have no one to care for them and whose cases no one is likely to pursue. They have also tried to list people who have no regular addresses and in this too they have selected people in remote interior areas.
There was a pointer to the hoax on the very day the list was published. After announcing a list of 59 martyrs the VHP split it into two putting 36 people as martyrs during the karseva in Ayodhya and another 23 who died in various parts of the country while preparing for the kar seva. Accident and sickness deaths became part of this second list. These people could not be called martyrs by any stretch of the imagination but the VHP probably did not expect that the list of the dead would be probed into. That was its biggest mistake. Interestingly it has not committed the second hoax of coming out with the promised further list of martyrs.
(Muslim India) Truth About VHP ‘Martyrs’
Name VHP Story Truth
Thakur Lal Singh, Raal Village, Mathura Died in police firing at Ayodhya Still alive.
Ashutosh Das, Brindavan, Mathura Died in police firing at Ayodhya Still alive.
Ramdev Yadav, Hajiyanbad, RacBareilly Martyred on Nov.2 Still alive.
Baba Raghav Das, Mathura Martyred during Kar Seva Still alive.
Mangilal Satyanarayan, Faizabad Died in police firing in Ayodhya Died 17 years ago.
Gopinath Tewari, Madrasa Chourah Died of injuries sustained at Ayodhya Never went for Kar seva, died at his
own place in Gorakhpur in police
lathi charge
Ramachandra Yadav, Tetwa village Died in police firing in Ayodhya Died in his own village of Basti in a
Police confrontation.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 13, 1991
