Nationalist Hindus Say They Will Retaliate For Buddhist Statues
WASHINGTON, March 2 (IslamOnline) - A nationalist Hindu organization, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), on Thursday threatened to retaliate in Ajmer, Rajasthan, where the tomb of Khwaja Muinuddin Chisti is located, if Buddhist statues in Afghanistan are destroyed.
The city of Ajmer has been described as a communally sensitive town where antagonism between Muslims and Hindus are deep.
Khwaja Muinuddin Chisti is largely credited for starting the full-scale propagation of Islam in India and was able to convert hundreds of thousands to the fold of Islam.
To this point in time, his tomb attracts thousands of visitors from all faiths, including rightwing Hindus. Hawkish Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani has attended the "dargah" on numerous occassions.
The Hindu ruler during Chisti's time, Raja Prithviraj Chauhan, stubbornly resisted the entry and stay of Khwaja Muinuddin. Prithviraj was later defeated in a battle by Muhammad Ghori. It is claimed by Hindus that Prithviraj's remains are in a memorial in Ghazni, Afghanistan.
The VHP, which has been of late cozying up with Buddhists, including Dalai Lama, said, "The destruction of Bamiyan statues is an insult to Buddhism."
VHP senior vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore said that Prithviraj's "samadhi [mausoleum]" in Ghazni was being insulted by the Taliban and said that people in his erstwhile capital of Ajmer are agitated over it "and they may react if it does not stop."
When Bajrang Dal leader Surendra Jain was asked what was meant by "reaction", he said, "You never know how people react." Observers speculate he was referring to the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 by these same Hindu organizations.
Acharya Girraj Kishore also attacked the BJP government for "appeasing Muslims" and repeated a demand withdrawing subsidies given to Hajj pilgrims from India.
