| A top Maoist leader has claimed responsibility for the murder of VHP leader Swami Lakshmanananda, which led to large-scale Hindu-Christian communal strife in the tribal dominated district. |
|
Secretary of the CPI (Maoists) Orissa state committee, Sunil alias Sarat alias Sabyasachi Panda, on Sunday said that the outfit had assassinated the VHP leader in Kandhamal on August 23 night.
|
“We had already decided to give mrutyu danda (the death penalty) to Lakshmanananda after the communal riots in Kandhamal in December last year,” he revealed. Accusing the Orissa government of being guided by Hindu organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal, Panda, the son of a former local BJD leader in coastal Nayagarh district, said that they had already decided to “give the death penalty” to fourteen other VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders in Kandhamal.
“All of them will be assasinated soon like Lakshmanananda.
However, we may forgive them if they apologise for their activities and leave Kandhamal for good”.
Insisting that the Maoists have no hand in the ongoing communal clashes in Kandhamal, Panda said that all the political parties were trying to garner as much political advantage as possible out of the communal violence in the tribal-dominated district.
The Maoist leader’s TV interview is set to trigger a fresh controversy as Hindu groups have rejected Panda’s claim. “The people of Orissa are not going to believe what the Maoist leader has said in his TV interview,” a leader of the VHP’s Orissa unit Subash Chouhan said. The Orissa government, which had initially held the Maoists responsible for the murder and subsequently ordered a crime branch probe into the incident, has not yet reacted to Panda’s interview. read
Panda to Orissa TV
Sabyasachi Panda, leader of the Orissa unit of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), has said on television that his group killed Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others in Jalespata Ashram in Kandhamal district.
He also warned that the rebels would kill around a dozen people who he alleged were responsible for the communal tension in Kandhamal unless they stopped their activities.
"Swami Laxmanananda was a leader of the VHP and was working to bring back Brahminism that was almost disappearing. He was supported by unscrupulous traders who were exploiting poor people," Orissa TV, a local television channel, showed Panda as saying Sunday."Hindu organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad are targeting minorities, mainly Christians, attacking them, killing them and burning their homes," said Panda, secretary of the Orissa state committee of the CPI-Maoist.
"The tribals are not Hindu. They are nature worshippers. There are now five lakh (half a million) Hindus in Kandhamal and this number has grown because of these forces," Panda said.
"They are playing riot politics," he said.
"We ordered the death penalty for Swami Laxmanananda. He was the main member of the VHP. They used money from non-tribal traders to build up the Bajrang Dal and ran a propaganda against Christians," he alleged.
"They falsely accused Christians and attacked them. This is why we killed Laxamanananda," said Panda.
He also claimed that the rebels had left two letters claiming responsibility for the murders. But the state government suppressed both, he added.
When a journalist on the show asked him whether he was responsible for the violence that erupted in the state after the killing of the VHP leader, Panda clarified that the rebels are not responsible.
"It is the VHP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party that have caused the violence to strengthen their vote bank."
He also criticized Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for "his failure to protect the minorities" and acting on behalf of the 'RSS-VHP-Sangh' which killed Christians and destroyed their property.
However,
Subash Chouhan, one of the national coordinators of the Bajrang Dal, told IANS: "The Sangha Parivar is not involved in the communal clashes."
