The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an outfit of the Sangh Parivar, on Sunday came down heavily on Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
It has demanded action against its leader, Raj Thackeray, for trying to divide the country on linguistic grounds.
VHP leader Ashok Singhal termed the recent manhandling of the Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Abu Azmi, as vote bank politics and said Raj would not succeed in dividing the country in the name of opposition to Hindi language.
“Those who humiliate the lingua franca in Maharashtra should be punished,” Singhal said, referring to the recent incident in the state Assembly where the newly elected members of the MNS disrupted Azmi’s oath-taking in Hindi.
According to him, the MNS leader Raj has not insulted Hindi but has insulted the “rashtrabhasha (national language)”.
Singhal also criticised Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind of Deoband for issuing a “fatwa”, terming the recitation of Vande Mataram as being against Islam. He said a resolution in this regard was passed in Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s presence.
“The people of the country do not want a home minister in whose presence Jamiat-e-Ulema moved a resolution not to sing Vande Mataram,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“The people of the country do not want a home minister in whose presence Jamiat-e-Ulema moved a resolution not to sing Vande Mataram,” he said.
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