VHP general secretary Praveen Togadia on Monday demanded scrapping of article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir that provides special status to the state.
"Article 370 is mother of all ills in Jammu and Kashmir. Therefore, the need is to scrap it. We demand scrapping of this article to have full union with the country," Togadia told reporters in Jammu after a two-day long visit to the city.
Reacting to the article cannot be scrapped as it was a constitutional provision, he said constitutional provisions are made by people and there can be amendments in it as there has been a long list of amendments in the Constitution in the past.
"We are not in favour of article 370. It should go. All political parties should make it a point of agenda to scrap it and people should come forward to press for its removal once and for all," he said.
On the demands being raised to ban Bajrang Dal, he lashed out at those who were advocating them and said, "Bajrang Dal did not explode bombs in Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Gujarat. They are not terrorists. How can they be banned."
He said political parties should not compare Bajrang Dal with SIMI as the two parties were poles apart as one is hardcore nationalist force and another is anti-national one.
{{/usCountry}}He said political parties should not compare Bajrang Dal with SIMI as the two parties were poles apart as one is hardcore nationalist force and another is anti-national one.
{{/usCountry}}Hitting out at Centre for being lenient to militants, he called for imposition of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) to deal with terrorism.
"Implementation of POTA at the earliest is only solution to tighten the noose against rising terrorism. No mercy should be shown to anti-national elements as it benefits none," he said.